It matters a lot, because Vue is supposed to be an alternative to cable. As long as it remains inferior, it won’t gain traction.
Yeah, I always assumed this would never be around for long. I’ll drop it the moment they lose FX.
AT&T/DirecTV announced their cord-cutter service: DirecTV Now.
The official website for the service is devoid of content, so I’m grabbing from other sources:
Notable positives: HBO/Cinemax add-ons are only $5/mo each.
Notable negatives: “big” networks may or may not be available as live tv (gotta keep that OTA antenna going!). No CBS at all, no DVR capability (“coming in 2017”). There’s something like a 72 hour “catch up” window where broadcast shows will be available and then I guess they are no longer available for viewing.
Channel Lineup. Plan tiers were named by some marketing SVP who wants to appeal to millenials I guess. Ya gotta GO BIG!
As it stands, this service isn’t good enough for me to consider.
Pricing is great, but with no DVR I agree it is a non-starter.
Also AT&T is zero-rating so you can stream DirectTV Now for free on your cellphone, which obviously violates net neutrality and just as obviously doesn’t matter as net neutrality is dead now.
Sling TV announced yesterday that they’re finally adding DVR support soon. In beta December. Though it’ll still be limited on some channels so we’ll have to see
As presumably, is Wheeler’s push to open up cable boxes/DVRs.
Wheeler is a lame duck. The FCC will not enforce net neutrality for the next 4 years, and by the time 4 years have passed people will become accustomed to watching TV shows for free on their ISP’s chosen service, and will be unwilling to give that up. Network neutrality is dead in the United States. It is dead.
And yeah, opening up cable boxes is dead too. Not that it matters because that’s old tech anyway. Streaming is the future.
True enough, but there’s aspects of that that apply to streaming as well, like standardising APIs or programme metadata.
Sure, and that stuff won’t happen either. It’s all dead.
Amazing how long it’s taking for these services to figure this out. Playstation Vue has it, though it has issues (no option to extend live events is the worst), but the others just don’t seem to think it’s all that important.
I suspect it’s as much about contractual issues with the content providers as it is technological.
Perhaps, but who cares? As long as it provides an inferior experience to cable STBs and well, piracy, it won’t find traction in the market.
Sure, I’m just saying it’s not that amazing. It’s not like Sony can just throw programmers/engineers at it.
Service seems on par with PlayStation Vue. More limited on device support, and no DVR vs Vue but the $5 for HBO and Cinemax is really good. HBO is $15 anywhere else. Dunno how they got that deal or if they are just eating the cost for promotional purposes.
The main key is how well does it work. I’m sure there will be some tech issues with the launch but do the different apps work well? I could never get into SlingTV the couple times I tried it as I just had re occurring problems with streams, buffering etc. It needs to just work consistently.
AT&T is trying to merge with Time-Warner, which owns HBO.
To quote Bender “Bending” Rodríguez, “Well, we’re boned.” Bring on the walled gardens.
I finally managed to unbundle by TV and phone from my internet. Switched to PlayStation Vue and liking it so far. With Netflix and Amazon prime, we have plenty to keep us busy. Moved to an IP phone service which is $50 for the year. Saving around $70 per month and kept my 200Mb/s speed.
If you get an Obihai box, you can save the $50/year too-- it links Google Voice VOIP to a POTS system. I used their first-generation model for years and it worked great, until I realized that I simply didn’t need a POTS-style phoneline with iDevices in every room and wifi calling.
It’s more for if we’re out and the kids want to call us, I like having a physical handset in place. I’ll look into your suggestion though for next year.
POTS?
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