AT&T Plans to Charge $50 to $60 a Month For DIRECTV NOW

It’s kind of funny that people actually thought that cutting the cord was going to save them so much money. Maybe at first you will save some but the big corporations aren’t going to let you save for long.


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I was getting worried when I hadn’t seen a “sky is falling” post for streamers.
I’ll help. The apocalypse is near!!
Maybe that will suffice the streamer haters for a few days
 
It’s kind of funny that people actually thought that cutting the cord was going to save them so much money. Maybe at first you will save some but the big corporations aren’t going to let you save for long.


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Except that for many of us, IT DID, and is still saving us alot (relative to the cost of the sat service I had) of money.

Everything is subject to change, but I will worry about that when and if it gets to that point. For now, I will continue to enjoy the savings, like I have for the past couple of years.
 
I am not stating that the sky is falling or individuals haven’t saved money over the years. It’s the fact that the streaming price are going to rise and it’s probably going to be a much quicker pace now than anyone is prepared for. I personal don’t care about streaming. I enjoy coming home from work or on the weekends and firing up my Hopper 3 and just watching good old fashion TV .


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This is just the first volley in the battle to bring OTT somewhere in the same region as profitable. There will be other weapons brought to bear including piecemeal charges for specific aspects of the service. These will ultimately include:
  1. varying levels of DVR service
  2. local channel and RSN surcharges
  3. Osprey rental fees
  4. more junk snail mail and e-mails than anyone can endure replete with offers for other AT&T services as well as those of their "partners".
They may even slip in some form of insurance plan (for priority, American speaking technical support and perhaps streaming box replacement. You probably already assumed that they would offer advanced installation options for those that aren't plugging directly into a TV.

5. Prime time (7PM to 11PM) surcharge
6. Multi stream/device fees (As already being done but more prevalent)
7. All big sports events become pay per view or incur a surcharge in conjunction to number 2 above
8. 4K or up-charge for the highest PQ (As is already done but more prevalent)
9. OOH (Out of home) viewing fee
10.Move from A La Carte to more packages

The Airlines will look like pikers compared to the remaining providers on fees.
 
5. Prime time (7PM to 11PM) surcharge
6. Multi stream/device fees (As already being done but more prevalent)
7. All big sports events become pay per view or incur a surcharge in conjunction to number 2 above
8. 4K or up-charge for the highest PQ (As is already done but more prevalent)
9. OOH (Out of home) viewing fee
10.Move from A La Carte to more packages

The Airlines will look like pikers compared to the remaining providers on fees.
11. Customers leave in droves and pirating becomes mainstream

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No news is well written anymore, except maybe what's in The Economist. Copy editing is a thing of the past.
As a professional copy editor, I couldn't agree more, but for some reason, Cord Cutters News can't even be bothered to run a spell check. It definitely impacts perception of credibility for me.
 
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I am not stating that the sky is falling or individuals haven’t saved money over the years. It’s the fact that the streaming price are going to rise and it’s probably going to be a much quicker pace now than anyone is prepared for.

There does seem to be a "sky is falling" mentality among some OTT live TV service customers when the price of their service goes up $5. I'm a member of various Facebook cord-cutting groups, and I hear many people complain they are cancelling or moving to another service when a price increase for their service is announced. But most of these complainers tend to be of the younger generation and likely aren't accustomed to the annual $5+ increase most traditional pay TV services have been guilty of for the past couple of decades.

I fully expect annual price increases for these services. But these increases will be comparable to those (in dollar amount) to traditional service increases. It's not like traditional services are going to suddenly stop raising prices, even bleeding customers over price as they are. In fact, it will probably get worse to make up for the losses in the customer base. Above in this thread, people speculated how OTT services will nickel and dime customers for various features and channel access. But those assumptions are clearly based on the kinds of things traditional services have been doing for years, and will continue to do.

Bottom line, in my case, YouTube TV would have to triple its price for it to even start approaching how much I would have to pay for a comparable level of service were I to go back to cable. In other words, they would have to effectively raise my price by $10 every year (cancelling my grandfathered price), whether by nickel and diming or raising the base price or a combination, for the next eight years to get into current cable price territory for me. No service would continue to exist if it tried something like that.
 
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There does seem to be a "sky is falling" mentality among some OTT live TV service customers when the price of their service goes up $5.
For a service that some are paying less than $40 for, $5 can be a big hit and if you're using multiple services, you may be seeing increases on multiple fronts.
 
if you're using multiple services, you may be seeing increases on multiple fronts.

Do you mean like my cable company hitting me with increases on TV, phone, and internet at the same time on an annual basis? Unlike with those services, I can easily alternate among various OTT services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, etc. —services many traditional TV service customers have as well—on a monthly basis depending on my interests, time, and budget.
 
Do you mean like my cable company hitting me with increases on TV, phone, and internet at the same time on an annual basis? Unlike with those services, I can easily alternate among various OTT services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, etc. —services many traditional TV service customers have as well—on a monthly basis depending on my interests, time, and budget.
Consider yourself fortunate if your cable company limits themselves to annual hikes. Mine (Comcast) changes prices or re-configures their packaging at least twice a year.

With everything coming from one company, the company has to be careful about jacking up everything. When you're aggregating services, there's no consideration of such things from the providers.

Further, those who brag about having grandfathered pricing are kind of over a barrel with regard to random switching lest they come back later at the current price.
 
Further, those who brag about having grandfathered pricing are kind of over a barrel with regard to random switching lest they come back later at the current price.

True. But as far as alternating among OTT services to avoid the extra costs when they eventually all go up in price, I was specifically referring to the on demand services (Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now), not one's primary OTT live TV service.

Thankfully, YouTube TV has given me no reason to see if the grass is greener.... And even if I were interested in trying out a different live TV service, I could limit myself to just the trial period of the other service or overlap services for just a single month to give a new prospective service a full workout.
 
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I have to wonder if the AT&T Manage is really trying to kill the company? First announcing the phase out of DIRECTV Satellite TV and now this...

I don't get it.
Reading the business press.

Their growth area is in wireless (cell ) and Warner and this is where they want to concentrate their time and money.

The big shift came when they bought Warner.

The rest if their businesses get the dregs.

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I have to wonder if the AT&T Manage is really trying to kill the company? First announcing the phase out of DIRECTV Satellite TV and now this...

I don't get it.
Of course, they are, "they want to stream only" its like the slow death of C-band happened, look at the new TVs being built, all ready to stream no new money is going into fiber around me, guess its all going to be cell-based and streaming, the new laws now will let them control the speed crap I'm about to haul brand KU dishes to the dump can't even give them away for free, shipping is the issue
 

Any suggestions for rural Internet?

Which streaming service is best for these channels?

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