AT&T appears to be adjusting to its ownership of DirecTV and sees the business as a path to a more robust video offering for its customers.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CEO Randall Stephenson said the DirecTV merger is helping combine AT&T’s wireless and video businesses.
According to a report from CNBC, Stephenson said AT&T was “more enthusiastic” about DirecTV than when the company first acquired the pay TV provider back in July for $49 billion.
Stephenson’s comments come in the wake of AT&T’s recent announcement that it will offer its DirecTV and U-Verse customers unlimited data plans. AT&T plans to make that possible by putting to use a block of unused spectrum.
But AT&T is also moving on its plans to give its customers more video options while on the go. Stephenson said the DirecTV was part of a bet his company made on “TV everywhere,” which he said he didn’t think anyone else has really “executed on it very well.”
Verizon has put forth the same effort, recently launching its go90 video offering aimed at millennials, but Stephenson praised Netflix as one company that offers a decent user interface across a number of devices.
Securing content has been the sticking point for companies like AT&T. Stephenson acknowledged as much, saying that AT&T will get those “content agreements done very quickly.”