DirecTV Now Price Increase

[Zookster]

With the given that Viacom is never blameless in any contract dispute over what it charges for its channels, it's interesting that this would come up this week:
Viacom at Risk of Disappearing from DIRECTV NOW, AT&T WatchTV, DirecTV, and AT&T U-Verse This Friday

And how Viacom is using AT&T/DirecTV Now's new packages as an example of malfeasance in this quote from the linked article:

Viacom is the No. 1 cable family serving key customers and communities on AT&T-DirecTV’s services across kids, teens, 18-49, African Americans and Hispanics. We have made a series of offers that are good for consumers and good for AT&T – giving subscribers more access to the Viacom channels they love, including Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount, while enabling AT&T-DirecTV to lower customers’ bills in the process.

Unfortunately, AT&T is abusing its new market position by favoring its own content – which significantly underperforms Viacom’s – to stifle competition. AT&T-DirecTV’s behavior is also consistent with a recent pattern of gouging their customers by charging them higher prices for an inferior product with fewer channels. Especially troubling, AT&T-DirecTV is marginalizing diverse audiences in its new DTV packages and threatening to do the same with their existing products.​

 

[navychop]

SHOCKED! I am SHOCKED that anyone could make such an accusation!

[and not be blaming it on dish.]


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[harshness]

Number one cable family indeed! Talk about makin' stuff up.

Next thing you know they're going to claim the honor of America's biggest "social influencer".

 

[comfortably_numb]

Next thing you know they're going to claim the honor of America's biggest "social influencer".

Too late. The media have already handed that distinction to Kylie Jenner and the rest of the Kardashians.

 

[george99]

Number one cable family indeed! Talk about makin' stuff up.

Next thing you know they're going to claim the honor of America's biggest "social influencer".

Hehe, yup. Almost everything they produce is pure garbage. Kardashians, etc... No wonder kids are getting dumber all the time...

 

[harshness]

Too late. The media have already handed that distinction to Kylie Jenner and the rest of the Kardashians.

Nielsen has also handed down the distinction for #1 family of networks and it isn't Viacom so apparently that has little bearing on what they can or do claim.

 

[osu1991]

Hehe, yup. Almost everything they produce is pure garbage. Kardashians, etc... No wonder kids are getting dumber all the time...

Those no talent wannabes are on an NBC Universal channel (E! Entertainment Television) not a Viacom channel

 

[Zookster]

I'm probably the last person to defend Viacom for any reason, but the "number 1 cable family" was just PR-speak in a quote for an article on The Streamable and was heavily qualified with "serving key customers and communities on AT&T-DirecTV’s services across kids, teens, 18-49, African Americans and Hispanics."

 

[Zookster]

Looks like the NFL is laying the groundwork for jumping the sinking DirecTV ship:
Roger Goodell Says NFL Sunday Ticket Needs a Online Streaming Outlet
I'd love to at least see an standalone RedZone/NFL Network app. I wonder if any current contracts is preventing that from happening?

 

[harshness]

I wonder if any current contracts is preventing that from happening?

DIRECTV has the Sunday Ticket contract through 2022 unless the NFL decides to pull the plug. This could happen as soon as the end of this year.

 

[Zookster]

DIRECTV has the Sunday Ticket contract through 2022 unless the NFL decides to pull the plug. This could happen as soon as the end of this year.

I saw that in another article. I was referring specifically to RedZone, which isn't exclusive to DTV. I wonder if the NFL has committed to cable nets/satellite/OTT live TV to not offer it as a standalone streaming service. You used to be able to get it through PS Vue without signing up for a channel package, but now it's part of a sports add-on tier requiring a regular sub. That's how most TV providers offer it now.

 

[harshness]

I doubt the NFL will mess with making RedZone a standalone subscription. I think secondary reason that the NFL used DIRECTV to date was that they didn't want to have to deal with subscribers. The primary reason being that they are wringing 1.5 BILLION a year out of AT&T for the exclusive. Using authentication as they are now is keeping them from having to deal with subscribers. If they leave that model and go direct, they're going to have to deal with subscribers and they can be a pretty whiny lot.

If I were a MVPD, I'd want my contract to say that the NFL wasn't going to go direct (as the movie channels have done).

 

[Zookster]

DirecTV Now is offering a free month on its new packages if you sign up by 3/31. In other words, use the code MARCH2019 on the Max channel package and get a free month of HBO and Cinemax.
Stream TV, Watch Live Television Online | DIRECTV NOW

 

[harshness]

The very fine print notes that the free month only applies to Plus or Max streaming packages. It does not apply to the packages that correspond to half the channels of their DIRECTV namesakes.

I hadn't noticed previously that only three of the seven HBO channels are included. HBO Signature, HBO Comedy, HBO2 (big whoop) and HBO Zone aren't in there. Of course if you're only interested in their popular serials, I guess it is okay.

In addition to the sports channels in Max, they've thrown in the main Cinemax channel (not the whole plex). Still no Pac12.

Still with the two stream limit? I guess I should have expected that from the company that limits satellite subscribers to one Genie?

 

[ncted]

MCN's comprehensive tally of the 37 networks that departed the vMVPD amid AT&T's recent reconfiguration of the bundle

https://www.multichannel.com/news/directv-now-dumps-viacom-and-other-channels

 

[harshness]

There was a comment on the article that Philo lost many of the same channels. This is clearly a sign of things to come to the OTT marketplace.

 

[ncted]

There was a comment on the article that Philo lost many of the same channels. This is clearly a sign of things to come to the OTT marketplace.

I don't see that comment. I see this comment though:


Johnathan Grant • 16 hours ago


Most of the channels that were removed are part of Philo TV. There's something to be said for unbundling those channels since they're available direct to consumer at a reasonable price from Philo. However, DTVN's new, higher rate structure, despite including HBO, is a bad deal compared to almost all the alternatives.

Is there another one I am missing?

 

[harshness]

Most of the channels that were removed are part of Philo TV

I misread the comment.

 

[Zookster]

It makes so much more sense for YouTube TV to work out a deal with Philo, like it has with certain premium channels, to offer it as an add-on, with complete guide/DVR integration (the Philo DVR works essentially the same as YTTVs in terms of the unlimited storage space for a limited time), rather than incrementally add some of those channels and then see the price go up in $5 to $10 jumps every few months, as just happened over at Fubo. That is, if YTTV has any intention at all of adding channels (I hope they don't). YTTV's only channel overlap with Philo is the AMC channels.

I bring up YTTV in this thread about DTVN because clearly DTVN has decided to go in the opposite direction, so no point suggesting they try something like this.

 

[harshness]

Like many content owners, AT&T seems to believe that their content is to die for and overrides deficiencies in their basic product. I suppose it remains to be seen whether they're right or not but from the consensus here, they're clearly on dope and no amount of reasoning is going to shake them out of their acid trip.