AT&T has been teasing its live-TV streaming DirecTV Now service for months, but aside from some vague pricing information recently mentioned by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, there has been very little in terms of concrete details. However, some new apparently leaked documents may give some indication of what to expect.
According to Variety, which obtained some documents that it claims were inadvertently shared online by AT&T, the base price of the service is $35/month, and there are 100+ channels, but it doesn’t look like those are all included in that base price.
There will be network TV (in certain markets), but you may not be able to watch all of it on your TV. More precisely, Variety reports that NBC will — at least initially — only be available for watching on your phone or PC. So even though DirecTV Now will be available for streaming through devices like the Amazon Fire Stick and Apple TV, it looks like not all of the channels will be watchable on all platforms.
Speaking of streaming devices, Variety claims that AT&T will be offering free devices to customers willing to commit to at least three months of service. Dish’s Sling TV streaming service offered similar promotional deals with device makers when it launched.
Another restriction appears to involve the three-day catch-up window for live TV. Variety says it looks like this option will be available for most channels, but not all — most notably ESPN. Sling TV has had a similar drawback, where users are blocked from pausing or rewinding ESPN and a number of other popular channels.
We’ve tried to get a response from AT&T regarding the Variety report, but so far it’s radio silence from the Death Star.
CEO Darth Randy did say the service was slated to launch in November, though the company has yet to put a more precise date on the launch.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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