AT&T's New Live 'WatchTV' Service Launches on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV

[MacRumors]

One week after unveiling its new live streaming service "WatchTV," AT&T has now begun rolling out the platform's app on fourth-generation and fifth-generation Apple TV boxes, as well as on iOS [Direct Link] (via BestAppleTV). The service is a free add-on for anyone on AT&T's new "Unlimited &More" and "Unlimited &More Premium" cellular plans, and is also available as a $15/month service for everyone else.

Like a few other live TV platforms, WatchTV includes just over 30 channels that you can stream live, including breaking news and film channels (but not sports). The service has 15,000 titles available to watch on demand, and subscribers to AT&T's new &More Premium phone plan 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.

The full list of channels on WatchTV includes:
[*]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 TVChannels coming soon after launch include:
[*]BET
[*]Comedy Central
[*]MTV 2
[*]Nicktoons
[*]Teennick
[*]VH1 Users can stream on up to two devices at the same time, but WatchTV does not have a cloud DVR feature or any local news stations. Other than tvOS and iOS, the app is out now on Android, Amazon Fire TV, and Google Chromecast.

WatchTV is a direct result of AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, with many of the channels on the service falling under the Time Warner umbrella. This week, the company raised the price of of the "administrative fee" it charges customers, which was speculated as a move to offset the debt incurred by its $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, although AT&T denied that by stating the administrative fee price is "standard" across the wireless industry.

Article Link: AT&T's New Live 'WatchTV' Service Launches on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV

 

[_Refurbished_]

“Free add-on”.

Ain’t nothing free.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Only available with their 2 latest unlimited plans. Old grandfathered in unlimited plan members, you're SOL. I'm sure this will lead to complaints.

 

[coachgq]

if that’s $15, each channel is about 50 cents? Let me pick my channels at .50 each and add sports channels at $1 each and I’ll be happy to subscribe.

 

[riverfreak]

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems bizarre to have to watch a broadcast of prerecorded content at a specific time. It’s even more so to do it on an infrastructure that should easily you to watch whenever you want. I don’t want to WatchTV, I want to stream it.

 

[Maze1967]

“Free add-on”.

Ain’t nothing free.

Didn't their admin fee just more than double on cell phone bills... Coincidence????

 

[rizzo41999]

Youtube TV all the way

 

[GizmoDVD]

if that’s $15, each channel is about 50 cents? Let me pick my channels at .50 each and add sports channels at $1 each and I’ll be happy to subscribe.

Same talk when everyone had cable boxes.

Not going to happen.

 

[err404]

Live TV? No thanks.
And ironically it does not include sports, which is perhaps the only reason to want to watch live.

 

[mariusignorello]

What’s the difference between this and Directv Now?

 

[guzhogi]

Have a grandfathered 6GB plan, which I rarely go over. This is $70/month more expensive. Not sure if it’s worth it

 

[vartanarsen]

What’s the difference between this and Directv Now?

This is just an over-hyped "Very-Basic" tier of DTVN

 

[oneMadRssn]

Hey do you want to pay for the privilege of watching a bunch of low-budget garbage with product placement everywhere, and with about 1/3 of every hour being straight up advertisements?

 

[spazzcat]

if that’s $15, each channel is about 50 cents? Let me pick my channels at .50 each and add sports channels at $1 each and I’ll be happy to subscribe.

ATT isn't paying a flat rate for the channels, some cost a few dollars some more, others less, but sports channels cost way more than $1.

 

[macduke]

I’m thinking about switching from DirecTV Now to this and not seeing much downside since I don’t really watch sports on there. Could save a lot each month.

 

[picaman]

I have the “Unlimited Choice” plan (the cheaper of the two just-expired plans). I get free HBO (that’s gone in the cheaper &More plan) and I can watch all those channels and more with my discounted DTVN account. Plus it’s $5 more for two phones. No thanks.

 

[GizmoDVD]

Really waiting for a good T Mobile promo. Im so sick of ATT

 

[coachgq]

ATT isn't paying a flat rate for the channels, some cost a few dollars some more, others less, but sports channels cost way more than $1.

Not asking to argue, but how much does Espn cost per subscriber? And fox sports, nfl network? All the regional sports networks? I’m sure ESPN is the most expensive, would you say $5 per subscriber? I’m genuinely interested.

 

[GT500SC]

I have the “Unlimited Choice” plan (the cheaper of the two just-expired plans). I get free HBO (that’s gone in the cheaper &More plan) and I can watch all those channels and more with my discounted DTVN account. Plus it’s $5 more for two phones. No thanks.

Same here. $20/month after discount for live local channels and several more we rarely watch. It also enables access to other channels' streaming apps.

Only bad part about it is the DTVN app is about the worst app I've ever used. Way too many clicks to do anything, the guide is horrendous, and audio gets weird at times.

Other than that I've been pretty pleased with my decision to dump DirecTV and save over $100/month.

 

[Saipher]

What's up with AT&T's TV service fragmentation? DirectTV Now, U-Verse and now WatchTV. Why can't they have their TV service under one name and call it a day?

 

[_Refurbished_]

What’s the difference between this and Directv Now?

Cheaper and positioned to be included with wireless plans.

They should have created a lower tier DTVNow that’s $15 and removed the confusion.
[doublepost=1530287331][/doublepost]

What's up with AT&T's TV service fragmentation? DirectTV Now, U-Verse and now WatchTV. Why can't they have their TV service under one name and call it a day?

That would make too much sense. Kind of like olives in a supermarket.....not with the canned vegetables and I can never find them. Life. Meh.

 

[vipergts2207]

That’s a pretty garbage selection of channels.

 

[picaman]

They should have created a lower tier DTVNow that’s $15 and removed the confusion.

This.

 

[oldhifi]

THINK VUE
[doublepost=1530292553][/doublepost]

What's up with AT&T's TV service fragmentation? DirectTV Now, U-Verse and now WatchTV. Why can't they have their TV service under one name and call it a day?

confusion is money

 

[spazzcat]

Not asking to argue, but how much does Espn cost per subscriber? And fox sports, nfl network? All the regional sports networks? I’m sure ESPN is the most expensive, would you say $5 per subscriber? I’m genuinely interested.

Here is what I found.

If we look at sports networks available in more than 50% of cable and satellite TV homes, $9.06 of each monthly bill goes to ESPN's top four networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network), whether the customer watches those networks or not, according to data from SNL Kagan (via Sports TV Ratings).
http://www.businessinsider.com/cable-satellite-tv-sub-fees-espn-networks-2017-3