AT&T To Begin Slow Process Of Killing Off DirecTV, U-Verse Names

With AT&T now owning DirecTV and still operating its U-Verse network, the company has two separate pay-TV brands. But that won’t last forever, with AT&T telling employees that both brands will eventually be phased out in favor of a new, unified name covering both satellite and cable TV service.

DSLreports.com points to a message posted to an internal AT&T site, explaining how the rebranding of both DirecTV and U-Verse will begin in January.

First up is to get rid of the “Now part of the AT&T family” tagline slogan that DirecTV has been using since being acquired by the telecom titan earlier this year. Instead, the AT&T Death Star/Globe logo will be affixed to the DirecTV name. Both DirecTV and U-Verse logos will be done in matching fashions to reinforce this branding.

But that’s not enough for AT&T, which plans to eventually do away with the two different pay-TV offerings in favor of a single name that just rolls off the tip of the tongue: AT&T Entertainment. You can hear all the teens screaming that name now, can’t you?

“One we have established our next generation TV platform, we plan to transition all TV product names to AT&T Entertainment to symbolize our move to a single entertainment portfolio,” reads the notice.

This includes rewrapping all of the company’s vehicles, redoing signs on buildings, etc. — an effort that will cost millions of dollars that could inarguably be better deployed in improving customer service.

We’ve asked AT&T for official comment on this story and will update if we hear back.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist