New ReCode Interview With AT&T CEO

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Here's a couple of interesting parts of the interview.

So you basically thought you were buying customers, not the satellite industry?

Customers and content relationships, right? Sure enough, we bought DirecTV, within a year we stood up a product called DirecTV Now. Purely over the top, designed for the mobile environment. Within a year, year and a half, we have a million-and-a-half subscribers on that platform. It’s growing nicely. We added another 320-some-odd-thousand last quarter, and what you see in our paid TV business, 25 million subs, been very, very steady.

That’s what you wanted, right? We’re going to replace the satellite customers with the online customers.

We were at 25 million subscribers a year and a half ago. We’re at 25 million subscribers today, but a significant amount of these are an over-the-top platform.


Do you make money from the online customers, or you lose money?

Today, no. Standing up the advertising platform is a key element to this, and plus we really pushed hard to get this platform out there. We just put out a new version of the platform just two weeks ago, with the full DVR capabilities and incredible amounts of stacked content and so forth, and so we’re price and discount, we’re moving that price as we roll this out to more market base. So you get to a place where you start making money on it in the next year, year and a half, so I’m not worried about that.

I love the idea that you’re keeping a very stable, and I believe over time, a growing customer base, but it shifts. It shifts to more streamed over-the-top capabilities, and the ability to monetize advertising on those platforms is exponentially greater than traditional TV platforms.
 
“Full Dvr capabilities”???
When did Directv Now began using dvr with live tv?
 
Don't make money from online customers. Makes you wonder how much others are making in profit. Important because at some point they will want to and what will that do to prices? It isn't as easy as, ya, they will raise subscription costs. Could be but for those that also have Cable service that can (and already the last 18 months has) rise.
 
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Don't make money from online customers. Makes you wonder how much others are making in profit. Important because at some point they will want to and what will that do to prices? It isn't as easy as, ya, they will raise subscription costs. Could be but for those that also have Cable service that can (and already the last 18 months has) rise.

Reportedly none of the MVPDs like Sling, PSVue etc. make any money off their streaming customers, and probably lose some. They are all following the internet model of "lose money now to get big". Obviously with the idea that once you dominate and there are few competitors, you'll be able to raise prices.
 
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Reportedly none of the MVPDs like Sling, PSVue etc. make any money off their streaming customers, and probably lose some. They are all following the internet model of "lose money now to get big". Obviously with the idea that once you dominate and there are few competitors, you'll be able to raise prices.

Something many of us have said for years would happen. I'm neither defending nor putting down traditional tv in this post, only saying if they do fail and online becomes the main way to get TV entertainment it looks to me what will happen is we would be totally dependent on internet providers for it all. With all the mergers being allowed not a pretty sight for the consumer.
 
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Something many of us have said for years would happen. I'm neither defending nor putting down traditional tv in this post, only saying if they do fail and online becomes the main way to get TV entertainment it looks to me what will happen is we would be totally dependent on internet providers for it all. With all the mergers being allowed not a pretty sight for the consumer.

Well the one nice thing is that over the next few years we'll see fixed 5G internet access become an option for more and more people, so there should be more competition for many of us which can't hurt. The question is whether the lack of net neutrality will prove to be a problem - i.e. there's nothing stopping AT&T from deliberately hobbling Sling TV while giving priority to Directv Now or the new Directv IP to their customers. Similarly Verizon could offer FIOS over 5G and hobble Directv's products.

We'll just have to see how it all shakes out. The one constant is change.
 
One other thing that will help those who live out in the middle of nowhere. I hadn't heard anything about it for a while, but apparently AT&T is pretty close to deploying AirGig. That will basically allow for a mini-base station anywhere there are power lines, so anyone who has electricity would theoretically be able to get internet. It is apparently very cheap to run (they think they will be able to install the necessary hardware by drone eventually so no one has to climb the pole)

The gotcha is that the devices clamp onto power lines (though the data doesn't actually run through the lines, but uses them as a waveguide and travels through the air surrounding them) so they would need the permission of the electric utility. Which means a lot of legal headache, since rural areas often have small cooperatives that own/operate the power lines. It will probably have to come from the customers telling the utility to talk to AT&T, rather than AT&T trying to track them down. If they can get enough customers together, it would probably be worth it for AT&T to install.
 
I’m not so sure their proof of concept has gotten them so close to deployment. Have you read something specific about rolling it out on a set date?


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
Something many of us have said for years would happen. I'm neither defending nor putting down traditional tv in this post, only saying if they do fail and online becomes the main way to get TV entertainment it looks to me what will happen is we would be totally dependent on internet providers for it all. With all the mergers being allowed not a pretty sight for the consumer.
Yup, thats right ....

And Internet prices will climb and climb ...
I'm already trying to cut my internet pricing.
 
I’m not so sure their proof of concept has gotten them so close to deployment. Have you read something specific about rolling it out on a set date?


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

They completed their initial field trials and are aiming for commercial deployment in a couple years. Basically around the same time you'd start seeing any large scale 5G fixed wireless deployment.

They were achieving data rates of 90 gigabits - obviously that's along the wires which is the backhaul, but that's enough for thousands of households along the path before it needs hit AT&T fiber.
 
Airgig and 5G are not the same thing. 5G uses mm wave technology and will require transmitting antennas and a receive antenna at each house.

But they do serve the same end purpose.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
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Airgig and 5G are not the same thing. 5G uses mm wave technology and will require transmitting antennas and a receive antenna at each house.

But they do serve the same end purpose.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

I believe Verizon has announced a few cites and pricing isn’t bad.
$50 per month (unlimited data) if you are a Verizon wireless customers which includes YouTube TV for free. $70 for non Verizon customers.
 
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Yup, thats right ....

And Internet prices will climb and climb ...
I'm already trying to cut my internet pricing.
And caps, if your ISP doesn't have them, will implement them, and make the overage threshold lower. The internet is not free, someone will be paying for the fiber and hardware to handle the additional traffic one way or another.
 
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