AT&T Launches 100+ channel online TV service in U.S.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

As had been promised for months, AT&T launched its new online TV service DirecTV Now in the U.S. on Wednesday, offering an introductory promotion of 100+ cable TV channels all delivered entirely online for a starting price of  $35 U.S. a month plus tax (so $35 actually becomes closer to $38). The new offering from AT&T is the broadest, richest online TV platform available thus far, offering more content at potentially lower prices than similar online TV services that have already launched in the U.S. such as Sling TV and Sony Playstation Vue.

 

A couple of particulars for readers here: the service is only available to those with a U.S.-based credit card or Paypal account, and the particular TV content you get, or don't get, appears to be based on the location of your credit card billing address that you sign up with, and not on the IP address location of your internet connection, which is the way Sling TV determines what channels to show you (for example, whether you get the San Francisco or Los Angeles network affiliates). DirecTV Now almost certainly also requires a U.S. IP address in order to access their content, but I didn't test trying it out without one, as yet.

 

The $35 plus tax promotion is an interesting piece of marketing. The actual price of that 100+ channel package is $60 plus tax per month, and that's what the price will be in the future at some point. But as an opening promotion, AT&T is pricing that package at $35 plus tax right now and for some unspecified introductory period, and anyone who signs up during that period, will be able to keep the $35 pricing as long as they remain a subscriber, even after the promotional period ends and the regular price for new signups goes to $60.

 

Also, the new service is available at launch on almost all major viewing platforms, except Roku, which they promise will be coming in the future. AT&T's DirecTV Now service allows for maximum of two simultaneous streams across all four of their different programming packages, regardless of pricing. None of the content is 4K, but it does appear to be HD or close to it, and seems to play and stream well even on larger sized video screens. No equipment, no contracts, month to month billing.

 

If your billing address in one of the major network owned local station markets like Los Angeles and New York, then you'll get live streams of the local ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates, plus all the other cable channels in the package selected. If your billing address in outside of those select areas, as I understand, you'll get next day on demand access to all the shows of those three networks.  Just like with Sling TV and Playstation Vue, DirecTV Now doesn't have access to the live stream or on demand content from CBS, which thus far has been keeping all of its programming for its own paid CBS All Access online network.

 

In addition to the $35 introductory pricing promotion, AT&T also is offering two other equipment promotions. Prepay for 1 month of DirecTV Now and get a free Amazon Fire TV Stick, or prepay for 3 months of the service, and get a free Apple TV Box. Both of the equipment promotions also  are good for an unspecified introductory period. Presumably, if you sign up and pay online, they'll end up mailing either of the two devices to the mailing address you used at sign-up.

 

Another interesting and unique feature of the DirecTV now service is they're offering add-on packages of either HBO or Cinemax for just $5 per month -- premium channels that typically cost $15 per month extra with either Sling TV or Playstation Vue.

 

I signed up for their free 7-day trial tonight, and have been playing around with it some. Some of the interface issues seem to be particularly annoying both when viewing on a PC and also when viewing via their new app on the Fire TV platform. But more on that later... Another thing I found out tonight is while DTVN does work on Chrome, IE and Safari, it does NOT work on Firefox or Opera, at least for now.

 

 

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/30/13788934/directv-now-att-internet-tv-service-questions-pricing-channels

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/directv-now-review-first-look-att-2016-11

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Based on quick overview of the service, there are some elements I do find annoying and/or difficult to deal with in terms of their user interface, despite the positives of a good price and vast channel content.  Just random impressions.

 

--As far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be any settings option in either the Fire TV or PC interface to allow the user to adjust the bandwidth flow based on having a faster or slower internet connection. Sling does allow that in their interface. However, DTVN did play and stream fine on my fiber internet connection, and the only thing I noticed was it sometimes was a bit slow to start the stream of a newly chosen channel or show.

 

--Any time I launch the PC web version or the Fire TV version, some channel automatically starts playing and pretty much takes up the entire visible portion of the screen. How it gets decided what channel auto launches I have no idea.  Whenever I restarted tonight, the auto play channel appeared to fluctuate between Fox News and oldies channel TV Land, even though I hadn't done anything with either of those channels. Why those and why any????  The impact of that is you have to scroll down past that full screen player to get to anything you actually want to see. And that auto play channel keeps playing all the while while you're browsing.

 

 

--Similarly, anytime you're in between choosing something, there's always some channel playing in the background, with the video playing full screen and kind of grayed out a bit underneath whatever menu tiles may be showing up front. It looks like the last thing you were viewing keeps playing in the background without time limit until you either exit or start playing something else. For me, that's annoying!

 

--Anytime you've got 100+ channels available, you know the UI is going to be a challenge, and it certainly is here. The home screen has main menu tabs for Home -- Shows -- Movies -- Networks -- Guide -- and Search.  When I went to the Networks tab on the main menu, at first it just showed one row of tiles of just a few of the many channels in my package, and then a second row of a few tiles for channels NOT in my package. At that point, I had to click again to see a list of tiles for ALL the channels in my package.

 

On my 1024x768 laptop PC display, that list of channel icons displayed TWO across, meaning I'd have to click down through 50!!! rows to get to the bottom of the channels list. On my Fire TV box interface and my 720p TV screen, the channels tiles displayed 4 across, meaning I only had to click down thru 25 horizontal rows of tiles.  On the home screen, to get thru all the different horizontal rows of different categories of content took 13 clicks down.

 

 

--As one of the news reports I read commented, the DirecTV Now interface is more arranged like a Netflix or YouTube UI where the focus is on categories of content, rather than on dividing up content by specific channels. So on the home screen, you get horizontal tiles of content labeled things such as What's on Now, New Shows, Returning Shows, Kids, Featured Movies, So Dramatic, Real Lives, Laugh It Up, Buy It Sell It Fix It, Food Glorious Food, etc etc...  (I'm not joking on the category titles, those are real) Definitely not MY style.

 

 

 

There is, available from the home screen, a more traditional channels and programming guide that looks similar to what you'd get on a cable TV interface. And, if you choose to click a little heart symbol to "favorite" particular channels, then you can then select a program guide version that only shows your favorite channels,  which is handy considering there's more than 100 in total to wade thru. But the traditional program guide is almost an aside or afterthought, because all the focus is on the Netflix/YouTube style UI.

 

 

I also should mention, re access to the major broadcast networks...  Since my billing address is NOT in one of the major markets where the affiliates network owned, my package does NOT include live streams of ABC, NBC and Fox, but does include next day on demand access to their content. If my address were in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and a set group of other larger areas, then I would get live streams of those networks plus their on demand content. But either way, the DTVN subscription price stays the same.

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Langsuan Man]

Useless, IMHO until they do something about this failing: 

 

 

The limits of AT&T’s DirecTV Now: No DVR and limited ability to pause live TV

 

source:http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/the-limits-of-atts-directv-now-no-dvr-or-pausing-live-tv-at-launch/

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Had a chance over the night to delve into DTVN's on-demand offerings, and as Langsuan broached above, and there are quite a few limitations.

 

Good news -- if you're looking for an entertainment show that's aired on one of the major cable networks, chances are you'll able to play back the most recent and even earlier episodes.

 

Bad news -- if you're thinking you can catch up on last night's newscast on CNN or BBC or Fox, you can't. The news channels seem to be mostly restricted to their current live streams only, and a small smattering of their canned programming.

 

Likewise, same with the major sports offerings. Checked ESPN, NBA TV, MLB and some others, and they too also seem mostly restricted to just their live streams. So if there was a game on overnight that you missed while sleeping, you're not going to be able to go back and call up the prior game. (Presumably because offering that would eat into the paid full season premium online TV offerings that already are offered directly by MLB, NBA, others.)

 

As noted, the DTVN service overall has no DVR functionality. So you can mark entertainment shows that you want to keep track of, assuming back episodes are offered. But you can NOT in anyway pick anything that you want to save yourself just for your replay.

 

In contrast, PS Vue has that kind of DVR functionality where you can save content for up to 28 days, and I did that and it worked even for some NFL games that had aired on NBC. Sling TV is planning to roll out a 100 hours DVR beta test on its Roku platform later this month, but they haven't said to what extent that will be available across its varied channel lineup.

 

Also, re NFL football, DTVNow is VERY limited. Presumably they will offer the live NFL games that air on NBC and Fox, if you live in one of the major market areas where live major network streams are offered. But on DTVNow overall, AFAICT,  NFL Network is NOT available and neither is NFL Redzone, regardless of what package you choose. In contrast, right now, I'm watching NFL Network and NFL Redzone via my Sling Blue package with a Sports Extra add-on.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Had a chance to tinker around this morning with DTVN's on-demand content, such as recent shows from some of the entertainment networks.

 

On the PC, I was able to pause/resume and skip forward and backward in the video by clicking the mouse on the timeline for the video.

 

On the Fire TV, the remote control's FF and RW keys did work in those functions, as did the pause and resume buttons.

 

But, at one point, I got kicked out of an episode I was watching for some reason. And when I went back into the app and tried to resume watching the program I just had been watching, the app started me back at the beginning of the show, instead of remembering/knowing where I had left off.

 

And for some reason, on one particular NBC show I was watching, the on-demand version of that episode suddenly cut off/ended midway through the episode. I'm assuming that was some kind of glitch for that particular episode.

 

One issue I hadn't mentioned above: there are commercials inserted into the on-demand content.

 

On the networks I've watched thus far, they're fairly inobtrusive, much less than if you were watching the live version of the same broadcast. Only a few breaks in an hour long show I was watching from NBC and USA, and usually not more than 1 brief commercial per break.And a lot of times, the commercials seem to be promos for other content on that particular network.

 

Of course, if you're watching the live network broadcasts, you get exactly the same commercials, and the same volume of them, as if you were watching on cable TV or via an antenna.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK