AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Plans To Launch Low-Cost TV Streaming Service

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AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) announced recently that it’s launching a low-cost monthly television streaming service known as the AT&T Watch targeting its clientele who don’t care much about sports channels. Also, the upcoming streaming service will be free for the customers who have subscribed to the firm’s unlimited data plan. According to The Wall Street Journal, the video service will only cost $15 per month. The service will be launched in the next few weeks.

Randal Stephenson CEO of the AT&T announced the new service during the last week’s testimony of the AT&T Time Warner antitrust trial. The company intends to use the new service to counteract the recent US Department of Justice’s claims that AT&T is notorious for increasing the prices of its DirecTV satellite services.

The new service is intended to encourage the users to increasingly opt for mobile TV watching. However, it’s not clear how many channels the new package will have though the exclusion of sports channels could be the main reason for a lower cost that is far beyond the basic cable packages.

Currently, the company has a huge streaming TV product that has significant sales growth though it’s expensive for most of the firm’s potential customers. AT&T recently filed a case to acquire the Time Warner and if approved, the firm will be capable of serving more than 25 million paid TV subscribers including huge media channels such as CNN, HBO and much more.

However, the Justice Department has denied the opportunity for a merger between the two giant firms stating that it will lead to exploitation consumers and unfavorable competition that could kill other smaller firms in the industry.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department recently launched an antitrust investigation to find out if Verizon, AT&T and GSM Association group conspired to control consumers from switching between rivals in the industry particularly the users with devices that support eSIM, which enables the wireless consumers to switch carriers without the need for a physical SIM card to be inserted in the handset.