AT&T Eyes Launch of Sports-Free Skinny OTT TV Service: Reports
AT&T is preparing to introduce a $15 per month, sports-free OTT TV service called AT&T Watch, in the coming weeks, according Twitter-based coverage of AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson’s antitrust trial testimony for the pending AT&T-Time Warner merger.
Update: AT&T is also looking to make this package available for free to customers on its unlimited mobile service plans.
RELATED: AT&T’s Stephenson Says Need for Scale Led to Time Warner Buy
Brian Fung, a tech reporter for The Washington Post, was on the scene and tweeted that AT&T Watch would be an OTT TV service, like DirecTV Now is, but start at a less expensive price point and not include sports programming:
[embed]https://twitter.com/b_fung/status/987062529338826752[/embed]
AT&T has been asked for further details, but Fung noted later that the company confirmed some of the basic details mentioned by Stephenson:
[embed]https://twitter.com/b_fung/status/987080231235346433[/embed]
AT&T hasn’t detailed pricing and packaging for this new OTT TV offering, but it would appear to be most akin to an entertainment-focused national offering from Philo that launched last November and starts at $16 per month, and on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of fuboTV, the sports-oriented virtual MVPD.
Update:Per CNN, AT&T Watch will be available for sale to all, but will be offered for free to consumers who take AT&T’s unlimited wireless service.
CNN added that AT&T alluded to this offering in a pretrial brief, holding that a combination with Time Warner would enable AT&T to bring those content assets to its wireless platform to “develop new and more valuable services especially for mobile video devices.”
Among examples, AT&T noted that it would “launch a new service with Turner and a small number of popular cable networks, which would be made available for free to AT&T's wireless customers on unlimited plans and for a nominal price to anyone else."
RELATED: Philo Unleashes Entertainment-Focused OTT TV Service
Philo hasn’t announced subscriber figures or ramped up a bunch of marketing for its new service, so it’s difficult to determine how its sports-free offering is resonating in the market. As for AT&T, a skinny bundle without sports would address a part of the market not covered as directly by DirecTV Now, which ended 2017 with 1.15 million subscribers.
Multichannel Newsletter
The smarter way to stay on top of the multichannel video marketplace. Sign up below.