AT&T's live TV streaming service DirecTV Now will increase the price of every subscription tier by $5 per month beginning sometime around August 1, 2018. AT&T confirmed the price hike to CordCutters, stating that the move was made to ensure that the cost of DirecTV Now remains "in line with the market."
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The company is referencing the cost of rival services Hulu with Live TV, which started at $40/month, and YouTube TV, which recently raised to $40/month to compete with Hulu. Now, DirecTV Now's entry-level "Live a Little" plan is raising from $35/month to $40/month, aligning with the competition.
In the 18 months since our launch, we have continued to evolve our DIRECTV NOW products to serve this new customer set and compare favorably with our competitors. To continue delivering the best possible streaming experience for both new and existing customers, we're bringing the cost of this service in line with the market—which starts at a $40 price point.
Above the basic plan, "Just Right" will increase from $50/month to $55/month, "Go Big" will increase from $60/month to $65/month, and "Gotta Have It" will increase from $70/month to $75/month. While some emails sent out to customers reference an August 1 start date for the new prices, some users have noted earlier dates.
Although unconfirmed, AT&T's $15 credit for Unlimited cellular plan users should still apply to the new DirecTV Now prices. With the price hike, this means that these users will pay $25/month for the "Live a Little" DirecTV Now plan.
The email messages also remind users of upcoming enhancements to DirecTV Now, including an option to upgrade from 20 hours of the True Cloud DVR Beta to 100 hours, parental controls, more local channels, and more. Coming sooner will be an option to add a simultaneous third stream to a plan and a new Spanish language and sports package.
Sling TV also increased a plan price recently, requiring Sling Orange subscribers to pay $25/month for its entry-level tier, up from $20/month.
Top Rated Comments
The same will happen if the T-Mobile Sprint merger happens.
So instead of using the lower cost of service as a selling point, they are raising the price just because everyone else is... seems to make sense to me :eek:.
Agreed. What kind of asinine reason is that, ATT? We're not going to charge more because we need to, or to bring you better service, or to add channels/features, etc. Other companies are more expensive, so we're going to be more expensive too so we can get richer. Can't they at least try to pretend there's some other reason behind the hike?They offer up considerably more channels than the competition at this price point... 66 channels, to 52 with Hulu, the next highest, to 47 with Youtube TV... then it plummets. I threw these all into a spreadsheet to track the prices in my hunt for what would be the best deal.
Comparing the number of channels is pointless. What matters are the channels people watch, and for most it's maybe 10 out of the 47, 52, or 66.Absolutely none of my college interns pay for cable and most of them get their entertainment from YouTube with a few also using Netflix. None of them give a crap about cable. Even myself and a lot of people my age (early 30s) don't give a crap about cable (I only get it for my wife who watches a few channels). I'm always interested in what my interns are using since I work on a team that markets to college and high school students and it's interesting to hear them talk about it. They even make fun of the name "cable" because it sounds so old and dated. Some of them only know what cables are from charging their phones and even that is slowly going away. They think it's a stupid concept to schedule a bunch of things in advance as a big continuous stream that we then have to set recordings for. They don't get why they can't just watch whatever is available instantly, which is why they don't use these services. These companies have a long way to go to become relevant to this new generation. These services mainly seem to be targeted at around my age and up. I grew up with cable but then streaming became popular when I was in college and I was an early adopter. Then you have people in their 40s and 50s who are becoming increasingly tech saavy and cutting the cord as well. But people in their teens and 20s? They're not really buying this.