Apps Directv Now App

[2010mini]

AT&T $35 vs Netflix $11. $35 is not penny comparing to Netflix $11.

you keep coming back to QUALITY content. I would keep using Netflix as my example. Netflix offers QUALITY content for MUCH less and more:
1) 4K content
2) watch when you want and what you want. DVR is history
3) stream 4 devices

Not a proper comparison. AT&T offers tons more content to you than Netflix. You are getting a LOT more content for the money than Netflix.

Where do you get these numbers? Have you looked at CBS All Access (with no commercials). They seem to be doing well and one of the major networks. And, NBC, ABC ad FOX are on Hulu (with no commercials). Take a look at that. They would be the most expensive.

Of course you will have to pay more for NO Commercials. We are just saying that a number of networks are offering it NOW. This is not some pipe dream. Of course the others like Netflix (with more and more original content) and HBO with original content.

All of that content is considered "OTT" it is just extra to their main source of income.

you are still living in the 80's and 90's business model when telecom and cables monopolized using their pipe.

with today internet, competition is opened up to everyone on the same level playing field. AT&T will face alot of competition from big player like Netflix to small player like Sling and more coming, possible Apple. plus consumers have many other entertainments today beside watching TV.

the day of 100's of mostly useless channels mixing with tortured ads is over. As a consumer, I don't want to pay so that I can watch ads. that picture is so wrong.
[doublepost=1483459541][/doublepost]the idea of 100's channel with content playing with a fixed schedule is so 80's and old.

some channels like live sport and news make sense to play at fixed time slots but 90% content is recorded. it makes no sense to play this recorded content on a fixed schedule.

if it is a recorded content, consumers should be able to choose what and when to watch. it is pointless to play this content through a "channel" streaming all day at fixed time slot. it is so wrong. DVR exists to fix this "problem" and ads.

without channels and ads, there is no need for DVR. why do you need DVR on Netflix?

Again..... TV via internet is aimed at people who do not have traditional pay tv. They are all offered by companies that offer traditional pay tv as their main business model. These so called skinny bundle are considered as OTT by the companies offering them.

This made sense when there was only broadcast, i.e. everybody had to use the same video stream. But with IP-based on-demand delivery, every customer now receives their own individual stream which can be personalized. One customer can watch with commercials and save a few pennies, another can choose a "premium" ad-free version. The popularity of DVRs proves that there is a significant market. I believe providers that do not offer an ad-free option will suffer.

And since you seem to like the advertising industry so much: They also get some interesting opportunities out of it: They can insert targeted ads into the individual customer's stream, which are much more effective than today's bland "spray and pray" TV commercials. Ad insertion is already part of all major IP-based distribution platforms. Just give people options, and everyone will be happy.
[doublepost=1483462002][/doublepost]To be fair, AT&T are not the ones cashing in a fat profit margin on DTVNow. On the contrary, they are currently probably losing money on the service.

DVRs are popular for the the main reason: The impossibility of consumers to watch all their favorite shows live. Pay TV providers use it as source of revenue as well as feature to attract customers.

Funny.... all the complaints of ads and how outdated current content model is. Yet right now content owners offers a la carte to anyone interested..... go open Amazon, Google or iTunes etc, and just pay for the content you want. Problem solved.

 

[normanfox]

Not a proper comparison. AT&T offers tons more content to you than Netflix. You are getting a LOT more content for the money than Netflix.

if I have to pick which one to keep, I would pick Netflix. Netflix offer variety of content for my family.
out of 100+ channels from AT&T, I mostly watched 3 channels. most other channels are either not my interest or garbage.

DVRs are popular for the the main reason: The impossibility of consumers to watch all their favorite shows live. Pay TV providers use it as source of revenue as well as feature to attract customers.

let be honest here. DVR exists to solve problem that is created by network/content provider. then they charge again for DVR as a "feature".

Funny.... all the complaints of ads and how outdated current content model is. Yet right now content owners offers a la carte to anyone interested..... go open Amazon, Google or iTunes etc, and just pay for the content you want. Problem solved.

streaming is still in its early stage. The concept of channels, channel bundle, pay to watch ads will struggle to compete with the model of netflix, amazon, Hulu, etc. AT&T is at the mercy of content provider and hence continue this old model. Cable TV is dying. no doubt, this model will not be the future.

the day of paying $25 for a 16-song CD with only one good song that you like was long gone. The same will happen to video, maybe not yet but will happen.

 

[d21mike]

Not a proper comparison. AT&T offers tons more content to you than Netflix. You are getting a LOT more content for the money than Netflix.
All of that content is considered "OTT" it is just extra to their main source of income.
Again..... TV via internet is aimed at people who do not have traditional pay tv. They are all offered by companies that offer traditional pay tv as their main business model. These so called skinny bundle are considered as OTT by the companies offering them.
DVRs are popular for the the main reason: The impossibility of consumers to watch all their favorite shows live. Pay TV providers use it as source of revenue as well as feature to attract customers.
Funny.... all the complaints of ads and how outdated current content model is. Yet right now content owners offers a la carte to anyone interested..... go open Amazon, Google or iTunes etc, and just pay for the content you want. Problem solved.

You keep changing your position. Original Content is Original Content no matter where it comes from. You said that the cost will be $20-$30 PER Channel for commercial free. I pointed out the CBS All Access with no commercials is a major network and is charging $6 with Ads and $10 without ads. No where near your $20-$30. CBS is not just going after cord cutters, look at the New Star Trek Series ONLY coming to CBS All Access (and Netflix outside of the US). This is without a doubt the new direction. Hulu OTT streaming service is also expected soon.

And your "all the complaints" comment. This comes up from time to time and this is not a direct comparison. Your augment is I should simply "BUY" the TV Series instead of "RENT" it. The cost is too high to BUY vs. RENT. Look at buy vs. rent for movies if you want a fair comparison. Usually a 3 or 4 to 1 cost. If it cost to rent each episode was $1 instead of $3 we would be closer. But at the same time I watch a lot of New Original Content on CBS All Access and Hulu (NBC, ABC, FOX and more) at a cost of $22 per month with no commercials. I would be willing to RENT the same TV Series if the cost made sense.

 

[Rigby]

DVRs are popular for the the main reason: The impossibility of consumers to watch all their favorite shows live. Pay TV providers use it as source of revenue as well as feature to attract customers.

Many use it primarily to skip commercials.

Funny.... all the complaints of ads and how outdated current content model is. Yet right now content owners offers a la carte to anyone interested..... go open Amazon, Google or iTunes etc, and just pay for the content you want. Problem solved.

You keep mixing up two different things. A la carte programmng is one thing, commercials vs. ad-free is orthogonal to that. Hulu, for example, isn't a la carte in the sense that I cannot opt to access only NBC shows (but no Fox or ABC) and pay a lower price, but I can get both ad-supported and ad-free versions of it.

 

[2010mini]

You keep changing your position. Original Content is Original Content no matter where it comes from. You said that the cost will be $20-$30 PER Channel for commercial free. I pointed out the CBS All Access with no commercials is a major network and is charging $6 with Ads and $10 without ads. No where near your $20-$30. CBS is not just going after cord cutters, look at the New Star Trek Series ONLY coming to CBS All Access (and Netflix outside of the US). This is without a doubt the new direction. Hulu OTT streaming service is also expected soon.

And your "all the complaints" comment. This comes up from time to time and this is not a direct comparison. Your augment is I should simply "BUY" the TV Series instead of "RENT" it. The cost is too high to BUY vs. RENT. Look at buy vs. rent for movies if you want a fair comparison. Usually a 3 or 4 to 1 cost. If it cost to rent each episode was $1 instead of $3 we would be closer. But at the same time I watch a lot of New Original Content on CBS All Access and Hulu (NBC, ABC, FOX and more) at a cost of $22 per month with no commercials. I would be willing to RENT the same TV Series if the cost made sense.

Again.....CBS offers that as OTT (over the top) it is just an addition to their main revenue source. It also does not compete with it.

 

[d21mike]

Again.....CBS offers that as OTT (over the top) it is just an addition to their main revenue source. It also does not compete with it.

How do you define compete with it? If someone cancels COMCAST TV because of the New OTT Streaming Services like DIRECTV Now or Sling or Vue they are required to also subscribe to CBS All Access to get CBS if they want CBS. CBS All Access is better then CBS via traditional services with the No Commercial Option and New Shows that will ONLY appear on CBS All Access.

Anyway, really not sure what your main point is. Maybe you mean they can charge less because of other revenue sources? Which I guess is the same for Hulu. But every service will be considered an addition to their main revenue source until it is not and then it is the reverse. Why you feel it has to be one or the other? CBS will be getting revenue from both/all source for many many years to come. At some point CBS may get more money from CBS All Access then they do via the traditional source even with less subscribers. My guess is they do not get same amount per subscriber from traditional sources like COMCAST. Currently CBS only has about 2 million subscribers from both (combined) CBS All Access and Showtime so much less then they get from traditional sources. But I expect it to grow as more and more people switch to OTT Services.

 

[eclipse01]

Can someone who has had both Playstation Vue and Direct TV now compare the two?

 

[d21mike]

Can someone who has had both Playstation Vue and Direct TV now compare the two?

I am sure some will give there personal experience but there are a lot of comparisons on Google Search. Here is one.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/playstation-vue-vs-sling-tv-vs-directv-now-2/

I only have DIRECTV Now at the special promotion so for me the price difference is pretty hare for Vue to compete on price. And I still kept my FIOS TV Plan using HDHomeRun Prime's with Channels App / DVR. So in my comparison I could drop the FIOS TV but only save about $50 per month.

In my "personal" review.

1. Vue has 5 streams but they are only at my house whereas DIRETV NOW only has 2 but I can use them anywhere including free Data use on Cell since I use AT&T. Have used my DTVNOW credential on my mother in laws while there for a while and one evening about my sons house while babysitting.

2. Vue has a Cloud DVR. This is really nice but I do have that with my base TV Package. And since I am really into TV Watching I also have HULU and CBS All Access with no commercials because I really really hate commercials. So my DVR usage is for everything else.

3. DTVNOW has 1 of the Hallmark Channels on my subscription with is a deal breaker for my wife. Vue has neither. Sling does have both in a $5 add on but Sling has other problems and no DVR. So not really a consideration for me.

4. My wife also like the UP Channel and none of the streaming packages have them. So the extra Hallmark and the UP channel and the DVR is mainly why I still have the FIOS TV Package.

5. I am very interested in what Hulu comes out with. I really hope with their offering they have more Channels with a no commercial tier. DVR for ms is required because the is no offering like HULU and CBS for ALL CHANNELS. I need a DVR for USA, AMC and a couple more.

6. For me the $35 for about 114 channels (Go Big is 100+) grandfathered. And the HBO for $5 (saving me $10) is costing me a net $25 per month. And I got a free Apple TV. Really no way I could pass that deal up. With Hulu saying theirs is < $40 I will need to see how many channels they offer. But I also have Hulu now so will need to see how they treat existing customers. I think for the max of 90 channels on Vue it cost $70.

If Vue adds more options I will consider having both Vue and DTVNOW until Hulu comes out and the compare.

BTW... I know a lot of people are complaining about DTVNOW Service but has worked very well for me and I truly expect it to get better.

 

[besler3035]

Can someone who has had both Playstation Vue and Direct TV now compare the two?

I've had both, decided to stick with Vue.

When DTV Now launched, there were countless issues and errors (there still are). Buffering, not being able to watch channels you're subscribed to, "too many stream" errors (even though you were only watching on one device). To this day, 72 Hour Rewind still doesn't work; DTV has finally acknowledged this, but with no ETA in terms of a fix.

For me, I've only had one streaming issue with Vue, which was during the College Football National Championship. I got a lot of buffering. BUT, I'm not sure if this was due to Vue, or due to my connection.

Vue has way better on-demand options for TV shows. DTV Now has a lot of random episodes, and on-demand is not updated frequently.

The Guide is better on DTV Now, and easier to navigate. BUT, I like the overall interface of Vue better...it's just cleaner IMO.

There's more of a possibility of local channels for Vue than there is DTV Now at this point. Vue has about 50% of local CBS channels that are being carried, and does offer ABC, FOX and NBC to some cities.

The Cloud DVR is a bit non-traditional on Vue, but it works. No DVR on DTV Now, though apparently this is coming sometime in 2017.

Channel selection is better on DTV Now with the $35 promo pricing it had. But, a lot of the channels offered were junk IMO. Yes, they have Viacom and A&E channels, which I do wish Vue would add. But there are some no-name channels in the lineup that I think are worthless.

Finally, DTV Now's customer service is absolutely the worst I've ever dealt with. It took me over 7 days to get through to someone over online chat. They have no phone number to call. They refuse refunds on a product that doesn't work unless you complain to the FCC or Better Business Bureau. If you're considering DTV Now as a service, I'd recommend you look at https://www.reddit.com/r/DirecTVNow/ and see all the complaints and issues people are having. I know d21mike above isn't having issues...but he's about 1 in a million at this point.

 

[d21mike]

I know d21mike above isn't having issues...but he's about 1 in a million at this point.

I wanted to correct you on this. You may want to read it again "but has worked very well for me".
And for my son where he is about 1 mile from here. So I guess 2 in a million

But to be clear we have noticed the problems that other customers are having but they are simply rare for us. We have noticed the major outages which there have been at least 3 where pretty much everybody was down. We have notice the mistaken too many streams but getting less of them and easy to get around and only happens when I change TV's. We have notice that sometimes a channel will freeze but very rare. Now, we mainly use DTVNow for Live TV like News and for him sports since we do to normally watch commercials. For our TV Series we both use CBS All Access and Hulu both with no commercials so really much better then a DVR for those shows.

Anyway, for a New customer that missed the promotion I would seriously consider Vue over DTVNow for a number of reasons. But those reason are really what is needed in this kind of service.

BTW... I have read a lot on twitter and there are many many customer complaining about the service. But some of us are simply not having the same level of problems. I do not think there is 1 answer. But a lot of the complaints were from customers using the FIRE TV/Stick in stead of the Apple TV. And I have notice some do not have problem is some locations. But to say that everyone is having the same level of problems is not accurate.

 

[besler3035]

I wanted to correct you on this. You may want to read it again "but has worked very well for me".
And for my son where he is about 1 mile from here. So I guess 2 in a million

But to be clear we have noticed the problems that other customers are having but they are simply rare for us. We have noticed the major outages which there have been at least 3 where pretty much everybody was down. We have notice the mistaken too many streams but getting less of them and easy to get around and only happens when I change TV's. We have notice that sometimes a channel will freeze but very rare. Now, we mainly use DTVNow for Live TV like News and for him sports since we do to normally watch commercials. For our TV Series we both use CBS All Access and Hulu both with no commercials so really much better then a DVR for those shows.

Anyway, for a New customer that missed the promotion I would seriously consider Vue over DTVNow for a number of reasons. But those reason are really what is needed in this kind of service.

BTW... I have read a lot on twitter and there are many many customer complaining about the service. But some of us are simply not having the same level of problems. I do not think there is 1 answer. But a lot of the complaints were from customers using the FIRE TV/Stick in stead of the Apple TV. And I have notice some do not have problem is some locations. But to say that everyone is having the same level of problems is not accurate.

That's why I said isn't having issues.

I agree everyone's not having the same level of issues. BUT, that might be a little more acceptable if they got their customer support working. That's one consistent issue for everyone.

 

[d21mike]

That's why I said isn't having issues.

I agree everyone's not having the same level of issues. BUT, that might be a little more acceptable if they got their customer support working. That's one consistent issue for everyone.

I agree with the customer support statement. They could be the worst of the bunch so far. For me and maybe for another discussion is the best customer support is the one you never need to call. When someone says the love the customer support of say Verizon over AT&T Wireless I come from the point of view is I never call them so I really do not know how good they are.

 

[eclipse01]

How does this app compare to Vue these days? Is the lack of cloud DVR that big of a deal?

Kind of upset that Vue removed all the viacom channels and they charge the full $15 for HBO.

 

[Spankey]

How does this app compare to Vue these days? Is the lack of cloud DVR that big of a deal?

Kind of upset that Vue removed all the viacom channels and they charge the full $15 for HBO.

I added a Vue sub in the last week or so. Vue has gotten better actually. The quick navigation feature is great, they added MLB network and PQ is just about equal to DTVN. Oh, every channel that has an app is also available.

The Viacom channels are big but so is A&E and History. Add those and it's sayonara DTVN.

 

[d21mike]

I added a Vue sub in the last week or so. Vue has gotten better actually. The quick navigation feature is great, they added MLB network and PQ is just about equal to DTVN. Oh, every channel that has an app is also available.

The Viacom channels are big but so is A&E and History. Add those and it's sayonara DTVN.

Hallmark is very important to my wife. Vue gets those and will try them.

 

[Snoopy4]

They need to get locals up and running or no jump. We can't get ABC or CBS OTA, so until those are offered no way.

Updated: we jumped. Changed Antennas and got both ABC and CBS.

 

[EDiTOR9]

I ended up cancelling the service and went back to just Netflix. As time goes by I'm sure all available services will only improve but until then I'm stepping to the side.