Malcolm Owen
AT&T is making major changes to the pricing of DirecTV Now, with the streaming television service going up in price by $10 per month for new and existing customers starting in April, while at the same time cutting down the number of available packages for new customers.
The increase in DirecTV Now's subscription cost will hit all packages across the board, regardless of the number of channels. The lowest-cost Live a Little bundle, which provides at least 65 channels, will go up to $50 per month, while the Gotta Have It bundle on the other end of the spectrum, with more than 125 channels provided to customers, goes up to $85 per month.
The price of Spanish-language package Todo y Mas, which includes more than 90 channels, is also increasing to $55 per month, reports Variety. None of the plans will benefit from new additions, nor will any channels be taken away as part of the alterations.
DirecTV Now last hiked its prices in August 2018, raising the cost of all packages by $5 per month.
A second major change is that DirecTV Now will only offer two tiers of service for new customers, rather than the five that existing subscribers can choose from. The low-tier DirecTV Now Plus costs $50 per month for at least 40 channels, while DirecTV Now Max is $70 per month for at least 50 channels, including regional sports networks and other sports channels.
The new bundles differ greatly from the earlier packages, as they do not include channels from A+E Networks, AMC, Discovery or Viacom. The channel roster for the two packages do include offerings from Turner and HBO, both owned by AT&T.
Last week, DirecTV Now added a number of features to the Apple TV app to make it more useful to subscribers, including single sign-on support and live tune-in, enabling verbal requests to Siri to select specific channels provided by the service.
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40 Comments
Enjoy paying for AT&T's purchase of Time-Warner DTVN & DTV fans.
Wow... I hope this is not a yearly ritual.
They should at least increase the number of simultaneous streams.
I signed up on day 1 for the GoBig package for $35 and now it going to be $50.
If more cable companies like FiOS and Comcast were to offer OTT streaming on AppleTV like Spectrum does, AT&T would lose a lot of customers.
I'm wondering if all the streaming services are going to follow suit. I hope not, because AT&T just lost me.
Randall Stephens, AT&T's CEO must have a really nice golden-parachute included in his contract and he's trying to get the board to exercise it. Why else would he look at a declining product and decide less choice and much higher pricing is the way to fix it?
I am a charter member of Direct TV Now and when I sign up they said my rates would not change unless I quit and subscribe sometime afterward. We shall see in August! If their is a bump up in August, I will file a class action lawsuit against AT&T and Direct TV Now!