Q. I just got an email saying AT&T TV Now is raising prices again. This is like the second time this year. What’s up with this? Why so many price increase in one year? — Marcia, Biloxi, Mississippi.
Marcia, you’re right. AT&T has alerted AT&T TV Now subscribers that its base ‘Plus’ plan will rise from $50 a month to $65 a month while its Max package will increase from $65 a month to $80 a month. The new prices, which will be for new and existing customers, go into effect next month. (Note: AT&T TV Now used to be called DIRECTV Now.)
In addition, customers who subscribed to AT&T TV Now’s legacy plans, which were offered before this year, will see price increases of $10 a month per plan.
The hike is angering AT&T’s customers who lament on social media sites that the service raised package prices by $10 a month just last March.
“DIRECTV pulled a bait and switch. Great price at first, (then) quickly raised price by $20 a month. Thanks for wasting my time, time to find another streaming service,” writes ‘Alvin Ross.’
Even long-time AT&T critic, John Legere, the CEO of T-Mobile, is chiming in:
“AT&T’s favorite hobby?! Hiking, of course! Hiking prices higher and higher and higher! How. High. Will. They. Go!?” Legere wrote on Twitter last week.
Why is AT&T raising prices twice in one year, and possibly risking even more subscriber defections? (AT&T TV Now has lost roughly 500,000 subscribers in the last year. The service reported a total of 1.3 million at the end of this year’s second quarter.)
AT&T no longer sees the live streaming service as a way to generate new subscribers to replace customers fleeing its satellite TV service, DIRECTV.
When it first launched the service as DIRECTV Now in 2016, AT&T believed it would attract cord-cutters and other cost-conscious consumers. And that belief seemed to be vindicated when DIRECTV Now generated around two million subscribers in the first two years.
However, it’s now obvious to AT&T and everyone else that the service’s initial low prices ($35 a month was the base in 2016) was the main reason for the subscriber surge. And there was no way to maintain that price structure and keep up with the rising costs of paying programmers to carry their channels. So AT&T has had to steadily raise prices, and in so doing, watch its subscriber totals plummet.
So AT&T now is simply pricing the service where it should be, based on the cost of program acquisition. $65 a month is necessary to pay the programmers and cover the other costs required to run a live streaming service.
I don’t think that AT&T plans to eliminate the service anytime soon, as some have speculated. But I do think it no longer plans to offer price breaks to attract new subscribers.
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
Sounds like AT&T’S NORMAL Operating procedure.
They HATE Customers, and Love making them RUN AWAY.
Look at AT&T’S Land Line Customer base. Same thing.
I signed up for Direct TV now July31,2019. I was suppose to get it free for 1 month. It was working for maybe 2 weeks after that the direct TV now was down and AT&T was working on it for 2 months. But At&t still charged me for 2 months even though the app was not working. You can’t get a hold of them by phone or online. If you did get a hold of someone they would say their systems are down and call back tomorrow. Signing up for the Direct TV now app was a huge mistake.
I just cancelled no use complaining. Take action cancel.
Are they raising landlines
Been a customer for over 9 yrs+ but have thoughts as staying a customer. It’s really sad the customer is never Right now. Just saying. As one said don’t complaint do something
Complete BS. The reason the price is being driven up is due to adding channels people don’t want. You guys still don’t get it. We want a streamlined service ( fewer channels) at a low price.
I’m back to broadcast as you guys climb your way back to the reason we left cable to begin with.
They’ve actually dropped channels.
That was the Idea behind DirecTV “NOW”. But AT&T Screwed that UP like everything else.
I have been with them for years, don’t know about any ADDS
What channels did they ADD ?
I’m so mad with them about my bill I payed them 300. Last month and s few days later got a bill for 200. I’ll be leaving when my contract is up..this is totally off the limits.
I just got their service again and got the ATT TV. Didn’t know it was a streaming thing and it is horrible! We canceled the Direct TV because of this BS and I swore I’d never go back and stupid me did! It is horrible and when you call nobody knows about anything with this new product that they push on you. All I wanted was to keep my internet with my firestick and was getting $10 tacked on for going over my data and still getting this from them. ATT needs to be sued for the Bait and Switch that they play. I would give them a good comment if they would let me speak to a human about their damn service. You only get that when you sign up for the damn contract. Let them sue me because it’s crazy how they operate.
I’ve been a long time with DirectTV, after all this mess and the experience of be left hanging on the phone for an hour and 22 minutes, I’m switching to another provider. Bye bye thiefs!!!!
I have everything with AT&T, CELL PHONES, INTERNET, TV, AND HOME PHONE. I cannot continue to pay these prices. I have to do something. I pay them way too much money monthly. This past year I changed to Direct tv from uverse. Going back to uverse or something else. A little rain comes and Direct tv doesn’t work. I can’t continue to pay at&t a butt load of money each month.
DON’T go Back to U-Verse, it is just using your OLD (1 Pair) POTS Telephone cable.
They are putting Internet, HD TV, and Home Phone on your OLD (1 Pair) POTS Telephone cable. That will NOT work well
Call your Cable TV Company. They will probable have people that speak “ENGLISH” (Good Start) helpful employees, good service and Better prices.
Also Rain will not affect the TV.
They finally pushed me away. Started at $35 went through all the outages being a day one customer. Now my plan has doubled. Cancelled – Chase Vaseleou