One week after completing its acquisition of Time Warner, AT&T today announced the impending launch of an all-new live TV service called "WatchTV," which unsurprisingly includes many channels under the Time Warner umbrella (via Engadget). This appears to be the service not focused on sports that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in April would be coming very soon.
The announcement came alongside AT&T's reveal of two new unlimited wireless plans, called "AT&T Unlimited &More" and "AT&T Unlimited &More Premium." WatchTV will be directly tied into these cellular plans, offering plan subscribers access to the TV service at no additional cost.
The service includes 30+ live channels, over 15,000 TV shows and movies on demand, and will be available on "virtually every" smartphone, tablet, browser, and streaming device. Subscribers to &More Premium will be able to add one of several premium services for no extra charge: HBO, SHOWTIME, Cinemax, Starz, Amazon Music Unlimited, Pandora Premium, or VRV.
Here's the full list of channels available on WatchTV at launch:
- A&E
- AMC
- Animal Planet
- Audience
- BBC World News
- BBC America
- Boomerang
- Cartoon Network
- CNN
- Discovery
- Food Network
- FYI
- Hallmark Channel
- Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
- HGTV
- History
- HLN
- IFC
- Investigation Discovery
- Lifetime
- Lifetime Movies
- OWN
- Sundance TV
- TBS
- TCM
- TLC
- TNT
- TRU TV
- Velocity
- Viceland
- WE TV
Channels coming soon after launch include:
- BET
- Comedy Central
- MTV 2
- Nicktoons
- Teennick
- VH1
The &More Premium plan (starting at $80/month for an individual line) offers WatchTV, a premium service add-on, 15GB of high-speed tethering, access to 1080p high definition video, and a $15 monthly credit to put towards DirecTV, DirecTV Now, or U-verse TV, similar to the carrier's current unlimited plans. On the lower tier, &More (starting at $70/month) offers WatchTV, a $15 monthly credit to DirecTV Now, access to 480p video, and up to 4G LTE unlimited data.
AT&T didn't give many other details about the new unlimited plans, but said that more information will be coming when they launch, which is expected sometime next week. Additionally, the company confirmed that WatchTV will be available as a $15/month standalone live TV streaming service for those not on an AT&T unlimited cellular plan, and those details will also come at a later time.
Top Rated Comments
When I read the headline, I saw: But 1 turd, get 1 turd free.
No thanks. They can keep their crap. :cool:
Yes, they can do it. Let's not freak out unless they do though. They still have to compete with other carriers, so just because they can doesn't mean it's a smart business move.
Remember how the Internet barely worked, and no new services or companies ever come into existence in the lawless period from 1990 to 2015?
Woe is us. We are lost.
[doublepost=1529588748][/doublepost]Odd that you've had that experience when DTVN works just fine for myself and many others.
We use it as our primary live-tv source, sharing the account between home and our vacation place.
No it's not perfect, but for us it works fine for the most part and isn't at all what your description suggests.
The irony is you’ve gone full speed into a head-on crash into FUD, by implying NN regulations constitutes “a dictatorship”, to say nothing of the hyperbole that “the government obviously knows what’s best for everyone” by legislating regulation. Last I checked, at least in the US, the government reflects the will of the people who elect representatives to look out for their concerns, which are expressed by votes and lobbying. In the case of NN, the regulation was repealed after public opinion was overwhelmingly rejected by those in power, which is literally the definition of “dictatorship”.