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It's been confirmed that the service is only 1 simultaneous stream.
I actually think it would be a better product with only 8 channels if it only cost $8-$10 and didn't cut out basketball.
CNN
HLN
TBS
TCM
TNT
truTV
Audience
Boomerang
Cartoon Network
That's a hard way to go. Only channel I might deal with in your lineup is TBS. truTV may interest me from time to time. Audience is clearly for millennials.
In the first quarter 2018, AT&T posted total wireless subscribers reached 143.8 million in service
Phone-only Postpaid Average Revenue Per Unit $57.33. That was before the merger was approved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goofy328
That's a hard way to go. Only channel I might deal with in your lineup is TBS. truTV may interest me from time to time. Audience is clearly for millennials.
I understand your concern, but you are thinking of choosing a TV lineup. Remember that AT&T's main concern is retaining wireless subscribers, and getting them to upgrade to unlimited data for minimum of $70 a month for one line, $125 for two, $145 for three and $160 for four,
Their new advertising blurb is: If your unlimited plan doesn't have live TV, drop it. AT&T Unlimited & More plans give you 30+ channels of live TV with new movies, the latest shows, and breaking news all playing on your favorite device. And you’ll get it all at no extra charge with the WatchTV app.
Ultimately they are hoping that customers who actually want to watch something besides the news will buy HBO.
Ultimately AT&T has to calculate whether or not buying the rights to these 22 channels and then giving the content with their unlimited data plan is helping to increase retention or upgrades, or if it is money wasted when it only discourages people from buying HBO or CINEMAX.
Hallmark Channel --------- HALL
Hallmark Movies and Mysteries --------- HALL
A&E --------- A&E
FYI --------- A&E
History --------- A&E
Lifetime --------- A&E
Lifetime Movie Network --------- A&E
Viceland --------- A&E
AMC --------- AMC
BBC America --------- AMC
BBC World News --------- AMC
IFC --------- AMC
Sundance TV --------- AMC
WE TV --------- AMC
Discovery Channel --------- DISCOVERY
Animal Planet --------- DISCOVERY
Food Network --------- DISCOVERY
HGTV --------- DISCOVERY
Investigation Discovery --------- DISCOVERY
OWN --------- DISCOVERY
TLC --------- DISCOVERY
Velocity --------- DISCOVERY
The wildcard is the FCC which doesn't want to see one company control both the content and the means of delivery.
I really don't think the sale of the standalone plans is going to mean much for the bottom line. I think they are just doing it to convince the FCC that they are keeping the business lines between delivery and content separate.
If two people in a household want some TV to watch over phones, computers, Amazon fire, tablets etc., then they have the following choices as some of their inexpensive options.
Choice #1) Buy two $15 subscriptions for 33 channels?
Choice #2) Buy a single $25 Sling Blue subscription gives a better selection of 45 channels that can be viewed by three different streams simultaneously. Sling Blue includes all the principal channels on WatchTV plus popular channels like SyFy, USA, FX, FXX, Bravo, National Geographic and a number of sports channels including NFL network.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 07-03-2018 at 01:43 AM..
In the first quarter 2018, AT&T posted total wireless subscribers reached 143.8 million in service
Phone-only Postpaid Average Revenue Per Unit $57.33. That was before the merger was approved.
I understand your concern, but you are thinking of choosing a TV lineup. Remember that AT&T's main concern is retaining wireless subscribers, and getting them to upgrade to unlimited data for minimum of $70 a month for one line, $125 for two, $145 for three and $160 for four,
Their new advertising blurb is: If your unlimited plan doesn't have live TV, drop it. AT&T Unlimited & More plans give you 30+ channels of live TV with new movies, the latest shows, and breaking news all playing on your favorite device. And you’ll get it all at no extra charge with the WatchTV app.
Ultimately they are hoping that customers who actually want to watch something besides the news will buy HBO.
Ultimately AT&T has to calculate whether or not buying the rights to these 22 channels and then giving the content with their unlimited data plan is helping to increase retention or upgrades, or if it is money wasted when it only discourages people from buying HBO or CINEMAX.
Hallmark Channel --------- HALL
Hallmark Movies and Mysteries --------- HALL
A&E --------- A&E
FYI --------- A&E
History --------- A&E
Lifetime --------- A&E
Lifetime Movie Network --------- A&E
Viceland --------- A&E
AMC --------- AMC
BBC America --------- AMC
BBC World News --------- AMC
IFC --------- AMC
Sundance TV --------- AMC
WE TV --------- AMC
Discovery Channel --------- DISCOVERY
Animal Planet --------- DISCOVERY
Food Network --------- DISCOVERY
HGTV --------- DISCOVERY
Investigation Discovery --------- DISCOVERY
OWN --------- DISCOVERY
TLC --------- DISCOVERY
Velocity --------- DISCOVERY
The wildcard is the FCC which doesn't want to see one company control both the content and the means of delivery.
I really don't think the sale of the standalone plans is going to mean much for the bottom line. I think they are just doing it to convince the FCC that they are keeping the business lines between delivery and content separate.
If two people in a household want some TV to watch over phones, computers, Amazon fire, tablets etc., then they have the following choices as some of their inexpensive options.
Choice #1) Buy two $15 subscriptions for 33 channels?
Choice #2) Buy a single $25 Sling Blue subscription gives a better selection of 45 channels that can be viewed by three different streams simultaneously. Sling Blue includes all the principal channels on WatchTV plus popular channels like SyFy, USA, FX, FXX, Bravo, National Geographic and a number of sports channels including NFL network.
I don't think AT&T actually wants people to buy into AT&T Watch
It is one of those deals where, if you do the homework, DIRECTV NOW is a better deal at 2 screens. I can get more than 2 screens on Hulu on demand for that price.
So I'm intrigued; Hulu wants $40 plus $15 to get the ability to watch TV on as many screens as my network can handle. Sling maxes out at three screens? And Hulu gets sketchy when you try to watch HBO for example. Then we're back to 5 streams at home; and if you're on the run, only 3 mobile devices at once.
Only people that should seriously consider AT&T Watch are those that plan for the entire family to sit down and watch the same program, or single people where it is never a problem because no one else ever comes around.
AT&T runs a hard bargain as usual. And given that there are no benefits for Prepaid or Cricket users it seems clear that this is a way to reduce churn for postpaid consumers that would jump ship to Verizon. They say that anyone can subscribe to it, but anyone can subscribe to DIRECTV NOW too. AT&T Watch is just a diffusion line for their premium product; if I can steal a term from the fashion industry.
Having said all of that if they give me the same benefit I get with DIRECTV NOW I might subscribe to it. But no way I'm giving them $65 a month for unlimited then another $15 for TV services. I'd rather tap out at $75 and get DIRECTV NOW and put the other $5 in my pocket. As long as I don't use up my high speed data I'm good.
In the first quarter 2018, AT&T posted total wireless subscribers reached 143.8 million in service Phone-only Postpaid Average Revenue Per Unit $57.33. That was before the merger was approved.
In the first quarter of 2018, Turner had three of the top five ad-supported cable networks in primetime among adults 18-34 and adults 18-49 and CNN was the #1 news network among adults 18-34 and the leading digital news destination for multiplatform unique visitors and video starts for the ninth and twelfth consecutive quarter, respectively. Year-to-date, TNT’s The Alienist is the #1 new cable drama and TBS’ The Last O.G. is the #1 new cable comedy.
Time Warner was making $521 million per month on subscription fees on the TV networks and $1,115 million total revenue (mostly advertising revenue). AT&T will have to make considerably more revenue to pay for the capital expenditures of the merger.
I think at best those subscription fees are likely to be static in the future. Cable and satellite companies will probably balk at any increase in fees given that AT&T is giving away those channels for free to tens of millions of their cellular customers.
So the question is how much will WatchTV boost that ARPU of $57.33 for the cell phone customers? If some of the existing customer upgrade to the $125 for two plan (from a less than unlimited data) that is $62.50 per unit. Maybe they can attract 5 million new customers from other cell companies that don't offer free TV.
But these 22 channels that AT&T is paying for from the four other media companies (Hallmark, Discovery, AMC, A&E networks). Lets make an estimate of $5 in subscription fees for those 22 channels for every cell phone subscriber who activates WatchTV. How much will those channels affect cellular subscriber behavior?
HBO makes $533 million per month in revenue. If AT&T has 143.8 million cell phone subscribers maybe they can persuade 10% of them to sign up for HBO on their phones. Now some of them may cancel it on their cable TV. Maybe they can increase their revenue by a few hundred million per month.
The standalone service at $15 apiece will have very limited attraction because the channels are limited and one simultaneous stream rule. But there are a lot of single people out there that will be attracted to the low price as a way of getting news to add to their Netflix. WatchTV may actually increase HBO subscriptions because of people who would rather pay $15 for Watch TV and $15 for HBO instead of $40 for a full lineup streaming service like Youtube TV.
While in theory you can eliminate all TV and watch Video on Demand, there seems to be a large percentage of people who want to be able to tune into the news, and they like to have a supply of just background noise, if it is cooking, travel, movies, old TV shows.
In the first quarter of 2018, Turner had three of the top five ad-supported cable networks in primetime among adults 18-34 and adults 18-49 and CNN was the #1 news network among adults 18-34 and the leading digital news destination for multiplatform unique visitors and video starts for the ninth and twelfth consecutive quarter, respectively. Year-to-date, TNT’s The Alienist is the #1 new cable drama and TBS’ The Last O.G. is the #1 new cable comedy.
Time Warner was making $521 million per month on subscription fees on the TV networks and $1,115 million total revenue (mostly advertising revenue). AT&T will have to make considerably more revenue to pay for the capital expenditures of the merger.
I think at best those subscription fees are likely to be static in the future. Cable and satellite companies will probably balk at any increase in fees given that AT&T is giving away those channels for free to tens of millions of their cellular customers.
So the question is how much will WatchTV boost that ARPU of $57.33 for the cell phone customers? If some of the existing customer upgrade to the $125 for two plan (from a less than unlimited data) that is $62.50 per unit. Maybe they can attract 5 million new customers from other cell companies that don't offer free TV.
But these 22 channels that AT&T is paying for from the four other media companies (Hallmark, Discovery, AMC, A&E networks). Lets make an estimate of $5 in subscription fees for those 22 channels for every cell phone subscriber who activates WatchTV. How much will those channels affect cellular subscriber behavior?
HBO makes $533 million per month in revenue. If AT&T has 143.8 million cell phone subscribers maybe they can persuade 10% of them to sign up for HBO on their phones. Now some of them may cancel it on their cable TV. Maybe they can increase their revenue by a few hundred million per month.
The standalone service at $15 apiece will have very limited attraction because the channels are limited and one simultaneous stream rule. But there are a lot of single people out there that will be attracted to the low price as a way of getting news to add to their Netflix. WatchTV may actually increase HBO subscriptions because of people who would rather pay $15 for Watch TV and $15 for HBO instead of $40 for a full lineup streaming service like Youtube TV.
While in theory you can eliminate all TV and watch Video on Demand, there seems to be a large percentage of people who want to be able to tune into the news, and they like to have a supply of just background noise, if it is cooking, travel, movies, old TV shows.
I heard that T-Mobile was looking into competing with AT&T on this front. Not surprising given the popularity of Binge On.
I pay for HBO when they have something that I want to watch, like GOT. News is actually more important to me at this point. Even though a lot of news is free, like the Reuters app, it isn't the same as something like CNN.
I heard that T-Mobile was looking into competing with AT&T on this front. Not surprising given the popularity of Binge On.
I pay for HBO when they have something that I want to watch, like GOT. News is actually more important to me at this point. Even though a lot of news is free, like the Reuters app, it isn't the same as something like CNN.
https://www.t-mobile.com/news/tmobile-uncarrier-tv
T-Mobile made some high profile announcements last December when they acquired Layer3 TV for over $300 million, but they have been fairly silent since then.
I tend to agree with you that you could watch BBC World News, or even Al-Jazeera or Russia Today and know what is going on, but most people want their news filtered through Fox, CNN or MSNBC.
Time Warner was making $521 million per month on subscription fees on the TV networks and $1,115 million total revenue (mostly advertising revenue).
NBC cable networks earned $1,065 million per month, a sum very close to that of Turner networks. It seems to me that COMCAST could do something similar to Watch TV in that it could give away an app featuring just NBCUniversal networks for free to people who purchase Internet only service from COMCAST.
I'm not sure if that would help or hurt them. They may lose customers for the full cable lineup even faster than they are losing them today.
Note: At the moment, one WatchTV account can only be tied to one Wireless account. So, you may only stream on one device at a time – regardless of how many lines are on the unlimited account.
So if I understand that correctly, if you pay $150 a month for two lines for a couple, only one of you can WatchTV at a time.
That seems stupid.
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