AT&T has wasted no time putting its relationship with Dish Networks behind it, and the day after the cancellation was absolute, it has announced new offerings from Dish rival DirecTV.
And AT&T has gone a lot further than it did with Dish, announcing the satellite TV service as part of a quadruple play bundle that it will market across all the 22 states where it operates.
The quad-play bundle includes TV, broadband, home phone and wireless services, and AT&T was at pains to point out that this is not something that rival cable operators can offer today. A year ago when Faultline authored a report on Quad play it was clear that no-one in the US offered all four services as part of a single bundle, something which was only found in Hong Kong, Canada, the UK and France at that time mostly due to issues with billing and customers records.
The AT&T statement went even further and says that the content is going to be homogenized across all three screens ‘ the TV, PC and handset ‘ though just how this translates into reality is yet to be seen. What AT&T seems to be saying is that it will make some channel line-ups the same in U-Verse as they are from DirecTV, and that somehow, presumably by existing (and future) 2Wire home gateways, the same content can reach a PC. In order to get the same content to travel to handsets AT&T will have to use cellular streaming ‘ unless AT&T really surprises the world and partners with either MediaFLO or some other mobile TV service, to broadcast the same programming to handsets.
Certainly the move by Dish Networks to purchase 700 MHz spectrum was always seen as a way of sending the same content to handsets as it is sending to homes, and perhaps AT&T could even dedicate some of its own 700 MHz spectrum (of which it has an abundance) to achieve the same result.
AT&T Mobility did say that some of this is in the future, and that their combined services would bring more integrated and interactive features to consumers, a move which points to AT&T eventually buying DirecTV, which has been rumored time and time again.
This idea of common content across multiple formats and devices has been tried by PCCW in Hong Kong and it has produced significant effects in terms of churn reduction and customer acquisition. However in Hong Kong Wi-Fi hotspots are also used to show the same TV programs, and if this approach is taken by AT&T, it could utilize its relationship with Apple to broadcast TV programs through wi-fi networks to the iPhone. In fact it could do this with or without Apple’s help, so we have to assume that this is a given part of the AT&T strategy, which will roll out later this year. Significantly it stole the relationship between T-Mobile ad Starbucks out from under its rival’s nose early in 2008, which would give it a solid platform for this.
“Consumers today are looking for TV programming, features and equipment that enhance their entertainment experience, at a great price and as part of a complete, integrated bundle of services,” said Jeff Weber, vice president of video services for AT&T Operations Inc. “By combining the strengths of our companies, we’re well positioned to grow our subscriber base and build the foundation for future innovative features and integrated services.”
All it needs now is for DirecTV to begin to sell mobile and broadband services for AT&T, (and even iPhones) and the two would be joined at the hip.