AT&T—the same people trying to buy Time Warner—announced Tuesday that it will be launching an online-only TV service dubbed DirecTV Now. It’s cheaper than cable, too.
DirecTV Now will be similar to other online offerings such as Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, but the kicker is that AT&T will offer customer more than 100 channels for $35 a month. That’s a solid deal for so many channels. PlayStation Vue costs $55 a month for 100 channels, and Sling only offers around 30 channels for its $25 plan.
DirecTV Now, which was previously teased at a Goldman Sachs conference last month, was formally announced at the Wall Street Journal’s Digital conference on Tuesday. The service will debut in November.
One big question remains: what will those hundred channels be? It’s so far unclear what DirecTV Now will offer, but if AT&T can offer networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW) and a collection of cable networks (especially ESPN), the $35 price point could appeal to an entire generation of users who have never subscribed to traditional cable themselves. According to Variety, the service will include content from A&E and Scripps, Fox and NBC Universal. And since AT&T is in the process of trying to buy Time Warner, one would expect the new service to include CNN, TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network. HBO will probably cost extra.
So with this DirectNOW news, a Daily Beast report on how the company spies on Americans for profit, and this Time Warner deal, it’s safe to say that AT&T is having a busy week.