At an event held in New York City on Monday, AT&T officially revealed its DirecTV Now live TV streaming service set to launch on November 30.
The service was announced earlier this year, and many of the details about DirecTV Now have actually already surfaced. The starting price point will be $35 per month, and will include shows from more than 100 channels with options to add on premium networks such as HBO and Cinemax, according to Tech Crunch.
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“It’s really important to understand, this is the foundation for how we’re going to do things in the future,” John Stankey, the AT&T Entertainment CEO said. “For the first time in our history, we have control of our full stack.”
AT&T is entering a market with stiff competition with likes of Dish’s Sling TV, Sony’s PlayStation Vue, and Hulu’s forthcoming live TV service.
In order to increase market share, AT&T’s rivals are focusing on user experience, various selling points, simultaneous streams, channel lineups, cross-platform support, and other features.
One of the popular features that AT&T will offer starting next year is cloud DVR, which will allow subscribers to record streamed TV shows and movies.
Another way that AT&T plans on enticing potential customers is to offer new subscribers free streaming players to those who commit to paid plans. For the customers that purchase the three month subscription, they will get a free Apple TV. Those subscribers that sign up for a one month will be given a free Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Not only will the AT&T be personalizing content and recommendations to the users, but also the service will be utilizing personalized ads.
Executive Vice President and CTO of AT&T Entertainment, Enrique Rodriguez, said the personalized ads are “an entirely new cost structure for AT&T.” He continued by saying the service will “understand what you as a consumer are enjoying and both serve content that’s likely to be relevant to you as well as advertising that will have a higher effect on you.”
Rodriguez also said, “Our ability to personalize and to target the advertising to every device — not just every consumer — is significantly higher than it has been in the past.”
DirecTV Now will be giving customers seemingly endless access to most of the major broadcast networks except for CBS. Thanks to deals with 21st Century Fox, the lineup for the service will include many of Fox’s cable networks such as HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros. film studio, which owns the rights to Harry Potter and DC Comics franchises.
Do you plan on purchasing AT&T’s DirecTV Now service?
[H/T Tech Crunch]
