Streaming services are slowly taking over the TV audience, but yet to stay in the field and ahead of the competitors, these streaming services need to apply new strategies, now and then. Despite the tough competition, AT&T’s TV Now, previously known as DirecTV Now, is yet again up to increase its prices.
AT&T at the beginning of the year had revised its streaming service plans and launched two types of streaming packages, i.e., the $50 Plus package that offers the users the access to over 45 channels, and the $70 Max package that allows the users to access over 60 channels and offers more sports coverage. But now, the company has again decided to increase the prices and that too, by 30% for the Plus package and 14% for the Max package.
It means the Plus package will now cost $65 and the Max package will be worth $80. But unlike the previous price hikes, the hikes this time will apply to both existing and the new customers, whereas in the previous price rise, the existing customers did not have to pay the extra money on their current plans.
AT&T is not having much good experience with its streaming business, as it has not been able to attract more customers to the services, instead is losing them slowly. Yet the company has to earn some profits, so it has decided to raise the prices.
Last year, AT&T ended the year with 1.6 million customers, whereas the number of customers in Q2 2018 was 1.8 million. Today, the customer count for the service remains at 1.3 million, which is a huge decline.
Despite the loss of last year’s customers, the company isn’t much worried about how the price hikes will affect the existing ones. For the users, there is an option to stay on the service or opt-out without paying any extra charges. Though AT&T offers a number of great services through the streaming TV, i.e. live TV and original contents from companies like HBO, it is up to the users to decide whether they think the 30% hike is valid for these services or not. The price hikes will take effect starting from 19 November 2019.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.