By the end of the year AT&T will offer five TV products, including a new OTT DirecTV product that is delivered via broadband, AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan said, speaking at an industry event Tuesday.
Donovan, at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit, said the new broadband-delivered DirecTV product will look just like the current satellite service, but will be much less expensive on the front end and eliminate the need for truck rolls.
It will still require some hardware, but the CPE will be a cheaper, thinner, lighter version, Donovan said, adding that operating costs will be lower.
“We anticipate passing along a lot of those cost savings,” he said.
Donovan didn’t outline pricing, but said it will enable AT&T to address parts of the market it can’t reach today due to line of sight issues for satellite signal, or in apartments where landlords don’t allow satellite dish installation.
“It will not only have a lower price point, but will have margins that are similar and therefore better returns because there will be less upfront costs.”
AT&T also plans to complement its OTT DirecTV Now video service with a previously reported lighter, sports-free TV product dubbed AT&T Watch that is designed for mobile use. That service will be free for AT&T wireless subscribers with unlimited plans and cost about $15 per month for all other customers.
Donovan indicated that the range of TV products AT&T plans to offer at a variety of price points will also include a greater level of personalization as they scale down, which will help make the products supplements to linear TV rather than alternatives.
The OTT DirecTV product is expected to debut before the end of the year, according to Donovan, who noted that AT&T Watch should be able to launch “much sooner” than that.