Beginning in January, AT&T will move its DirecTV satellite television service under its own brand, keeping the DirecTV name for the product and adding the telecom giant's iconic globe logo. In a memo to employees on Dec. 2, AT&T said it would also remove the "Now part of the AT&T Family," tag line from DirecTV marketing.
“The iconic AT&T brand – one of the world’s most valuable and admired – is our brand,” AT&T said in an internal company memo.
AT&T purchased DirecTV in a deal valued at $48.5 billion in July. Combined with its U-Verse telco TV service, AT&T has about 26 million pay TV subscribers, making it the largest pay television service provider in the country.
In the internal company memo, AT&T said that it plans to transition all of its TV product names to AT&T Entertainment once it establishes its “next generation TV platform.” The company did not elaborate.
At its August Analyst Day, AT&T said it is developing a new home media gateway that will allow third-party broadband connections, LTE connections and AT&T broadband connections, according to DSL Reports. At the same meeting, AT&T Entertainment & Internet Services chief John Stankey said the goal is to move to a single architecture for all TV and broadband users that will involve "very thin hardware profiles," (probably a cloud DVR) and that its set-top, router and gateway hardware "will become a consolidated, single platform over the next 24-36 months."
The memo added that the company is changing the name of its overall TV organization from AT&T Entertainment & Internet Services to AT&T Entertainment Group.
AT&T and DirecTV officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Incorporating the AT&T logo with the DirecTV service makes sense, especially as the company has made major efforts to bundle the TV offering with its wireless service.
