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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 1 december 2016

DirecTV wants to be the next online substitute for cable

TALI ARBEL and DVR recording (which
AP Technology Writer Vue offers now, while Sling
NEW YORK (AP) — There are is only launching next
already a few online ser- month) and subscription TV
vices that aim to replace services like Amazon and
cable, but they haven’t Netflix (no blackouts, no
attracted many users yet. restrictions based on loca-
AT&T’s DirecTV hopes to tion if you’re in your home
change that with a new country).
service announced Mon- ENTER DIRECTV
day. DirecTV Now, available
While just about any per- Wednesday, will have some
son you meet on the street of those same problems. It
will tell you cable costs too is launching without CBS,
much, the vast majority of which airs hits like “NCIS,”
Americans don’t think it’s ‘’The Big Bang Theory” and
bad enough to cancel. NFL football games. CBS
Cheaper online live-TV ser- also has its own streaming
vices, like Dish Network’s service it wants you to pay
Sling TV and Sony’s PlaySta- for.
tion Vue, remain relatively And ABC, NBC and Fox will
unknown compared with only be available live in a
Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. handful of mostly large cit-
And while they’re easy to ies — those in which the
order and cancel online In this Monday, May 19, 2014, file photo, traders gather at the post that handles AT&T on the floor national broadcasters own
and fairly simple to use, of the New York Stock Exchange. Associated Press its local TV affiliate. So lots
they still have drawbacks. of sports will be unavailable
“No one has really deliv- get customers to pay up, research firm Parks Associ- a TV series, but sports fans for many subscribers.
ered the right combina- it could attract millions of ates. Neither service reports typically want to watch The service won’t immedi-
tion of content, price and people. subscriber numbers. games live. ately offer an online DVR
ease that will get people to Americans are increasingly Of course, it’s hard to at- And even though so-called that lets you store programs
make that call to their cur- dissatisfied with how much tract attention when there cord-cutters are on a quest online for later viewing,
rent provider and say sayo- they pay for what’s on TV. are also dozens of other for cheaper video, virtual although AT&T says that
nara,” said Forrester analyst The number of customers video apps. You can sign cable may end costing will be coming next year.
Jim Nail. paying cable and satel- up for specific sports, or just as much, depending You can only run it on two
It’s unclear if AT&T’s new lite operators for TV has comedy, or anime, or a on how many sports chan- screens at a time, which
service, creatively dubbed dropped nearly 3 million, single channel, like HBO or nels or other extras you may not work for large fam-
DirecTV Now, will break out to roughly 97 million, in the CBS. Netflix, the country’s want and how much your ilies. And it won’t initially
with consumers, especially past two years, according most popular paid video internet costs when it’s dis- work with Roku, one of the
with another live-TV opera- to industry experts Mof- service, has 47.5 million cus- connected from its cable- most popular streaming-TV
tion from Hulu coming ear- fettNathanson Research. tomers in the U.S. bundle discount. Bundles gadgets, although it will
ly next year. And maybe And plenty of people nev- THE PROBLEMS WITH INTER- from Sling and Vue range next year.
one from Google. Or, who er signed up for a $100 NET TV from $20 to $65 a month. Even so, the $35 bundle is
knows, maybe even Apple, TV bundle to begin with. New services don’t have all You can pay to add more cheaper than the typical
too. Research firm SNL Kagan the channels people want. channels. cable bundle and provides
The service, which will be estimates that about 14.4 There’s been no perfect so- These services are easy to more channels than online
available on Wednesday, million households pay for lution that lets you pick only sign up for and cancel — cable competitors offer at
will initially offer more than internet but not TV. AT&T your favorite channels for a but connecting them to a similar prices. But the $60
100 channels for a teaser sees the potential market reasonable price, a vision TV often requires an extra standard price that kicks
price of $35 a month. But for DirecTV Now as 20 mil- of TV nirvana known as “a step or a new gadget, like in down the road is much
that’s a limited-time offer, lion homes. la carte” that has failed to an Apple TV. On the plus less of a deal. AT&T will also
and the price for that bun- But analysts estimate that materialize because it un- side, while they’ve experi- offer a smaller package of
dle will nearly double once Sling has racked up fewer dermines the business mod- enced some technical is- about 60 channels for $35.
the deal expires. (Existing than 1 million subscribers els of entertainment con- sues during major events, There will also be $50 and
customers will be grandfa- since it launched in Febru- glomerates. Only people in service quality appears to $70 bundles.
thered in.) AT&T didn’t say ary 2015. Vue’s numbers some markets can watch have improved. AT&T will promote the ser-
when that will happen. are harder to get a handle broadcast channels like And they sometimes lack vice by letting its smart-
WHO WANTS TO WATCH? on, but it’s not on the list of NBC and Fox in real time. some of the best features phone customers stream
If an online cable service top 10 most popular online That’s OK if you can wait to of both traditional TV, like without eating into their
could figure out how to video services compiled by watch the next episode of endless channel options mobile data plan.q