These transitions are slow. DirecTV still has MPEG-2 SD customers out there, believe it or not. Who these people are, I don't know, but U-Verse is an HD platform with DVR and 4 or 6 tuners, so I don't see it going away anytime soon. The current STBs will run for years, since they can replace the hard drives, and they have a few million of them sitting in a warehouse somewhere some all the people they converted over to D*. That stock could easily last a decade, even with a few new subs here and there on AT&T Fiber.

I don't think they will ever run exactly the same software, but I think the goal would be for everything moving forward to run the new software, not to backfit it.

They could make the U-Verse channel lineup basically the same as the DirecTV one, at least for the common channels between them. That's not hard to do. I don't think they will ever run exactly the same software, but I think the goal would be for everything moving forward to run the new software, not to backfit it.

Another 5-10 years for U-verse TV sounds like an awful long time. If they just stopped any new sign-ups and stopped all pricing promos/haggling for renewals (which I've read they already have), while freezing features/channel line-ups (never any 4K, etc.), my guess is that simple attrition would reduce U-verse TV to a small enough number to pull the plug in well under 10 years. It was announced almost two years ago that AT&T had stopped making new U-verse TV STBs (although the current batch will run for a few more years before failing).

Unless there's a way to flash new software onto the existing U-verse STBs so that it gains the new unified UI and can be fed by the new unified software/cloud-based video platform (rolling out first for DirecTV Now before being leveraged throughout AT&T), then I don't see AT&T wanting to allow U-verse TV to hang around for even 5 more years. At some point, they'll force a switchover to OTT DirecTV with new thin-client STBs and they'll make the deal sweet enough that U-verse TV customers will be mostly happy about it.

I just thought of something what if AT&T is actually talking about having the full DTV service over Managed IPTV and having the cloud DVR on the Internet? Then they would just need AT&T's Gateway and have the C71KW connect to AT&T's Gateway using Managed IPTV.

Another way of looking at is if DTV was going to do two versions of the full DTV service one over SatelliteTV, and the full version of DTV using unmanaged IPTV. Also doing a light version of DTV Now over unmanaged IPTV wouldn't AT&T then be paying three times for those channel contracts and how much money that would cost them?

That's interesting, as when does that become a managed IPTV service from a regulatory perspective, even if it is sharing the backend, just with a slightly different channel lineup, as the OTT service?

Their are a couple of things with UVerseTV. One would be would AT&T care about UVerseTV customers not being able to get LOS, get it in MDU's and like UVerseTV and wouldn't want to switch to DTV or DTV Now. DTV Now might not exactly replicate UVerseTV.

Also their subscriber count. If they shut down UVerseTV they would automatically go down 4 million subscribers. I know they don't make a dime of off UVerseTV but would AT&T care about loosing that much of a subscriber count.

What could be an interesting play is if AT&T makes a play like Level3 has to make an OTT cable service distinct from their DBS service that some small cable companies maybe adopt as their pay TV platform in order to avoid the now laregly unprofitable TV business, although at that point, were looking at something much closed to U-Verse than even DirecTV Now or certainly DirecTV. DBS isn't going anywhere in the next 10-20 years as a DBS platform but I think AT&T is preparing for a future DirecTV with 5M subs not 20M.

Maybe the reason it just said ATT/DTV OTT in the manual is that its a dual purpose box? It will run both DTV and DTV Now and not the full version of DTV over the Internet. I wonder if AT&T just wants to expand DTV Now to be like UVerseTV using Internet. What if they thought about doing DTV over managed IPTV but choose unmanaged IPTV instead with DTV Now?

Over time, the contracts will converge, but the regulatory framework is still different for cable/IPTV, and DBS. That's just a fact. Could they make a DirecTV branded offering over the internet? Sure. Is it going to be the exact same as DBS-based DirecTV? Absolutely not. Until Congress changes the law to make cable and satellite the same, the services will not be the same, and will not have the exactly same content, particularly in regards to local channels, markets, SV locals, must-carry, etc.

I would agree with the analysis until you get to the part about DirecTV over the internet. They can't offer the same DirecTV service over the internet, as their agreements and regulatory frameworks are very specifically for DBS.

Internet is DirecTV NOW. My bet is that this is a new architecture with client boxes that can work with the HS27, which will have SWiM DBS tuners, but could also work with a different gateway (or maybe even the same one) for U-Verse IPTV, and possibly even on it's own with DirecTV NOW.

Since the C61k is a managed IPTV streaming box that's just streaming off of a local server with DBS tuners vice remote servers, I don't see any reason why one box couldn't handle two or three different services depending on the situation.

That's not a valid comparison, as that online access is supplemental to what is already offered via DBS, just like many cable/fiber/IPTV MSOs. I don't think that they are going to have TWO OTT internet streaming services, as that makes no sense. Either they will fold DirecTV NOW under the DirecTV brand, or they will keep DirecTV as purely DBS, and all IP-based OTT services will fall under the DirecTV NOW brand.

I don't foresee them pulling the plug on U-Verse TV. They might not invest much in it, but they have a lot of people in MDUs, with large trees in their yard, or who have irrational dish phobia syndrome, and they don't want to miss out on those subscribers.

AT&T does not have streaming rights to all the channels that they do for traditional U-Verse TV and DirecTV satellite. Some of these networks are outright refusing to make any more licensing deals, instead choosing to push their own streaming service (CBS, *ahem*).

So what you are saying is the HS-27 will be a home cloud server running Android TV that will work with a new DTV app that would replace the RVU app and that you would have on that Android TV box or on a TV with Android TV built in and that would stream wirelessly or wired? Then this new app will work with both DTV on SatelliteTV and unmanaged IPTV?

Also once AT&T does this new DTV system that is when they will they will get rid of Managed IPTV want all UVerseTV on the new DTV platform?

I think that way would be cool. The full DTV experience delivered over SatelliteTV and unmanaged IPTV. I wonder if they would have the same DTV channel packages like over both systems and the same PQ? Then get rid of UVerseTV when all that is ready.