dslreports logo
 story category
'AT&T TV' Trademark Hints At Another New Streaming Service

AT&T continues to provide hints that it will someday kill off its satellite TV service (DirecTV) and IPTV service (formerly U-Verse) brands and technology, and instead replace them both with an over the top streaming service unified under the AT&T brand. AT&T's been hinting for a while that such a shift was eminent. And in large part in makes sense, given that AT&T can repurpose the bandwidth currently reserved for IPTV to help shore up broadband speeds that continue to trail cable providers across huge swaths of the company's broadband footprint.

Click for full size
This week another hint emerged with the news that AT&T is seeking a new "AT&T TV" trademark ahead of a possible, though still far off, retirement of the DirecTV and IPTV brands.

In its trademark application, AT&T says the AT&T TV brand would be used for "Set-top boxes; computer hardware and software used for the control of voice controlled set-top boxes; remote controls for set-top boxes."

This could be a hint at AT&T's other looming new streaming service that the company plans to launch sometime this year. This service would purportedly be based-on-but-separate-from AT&T's DirecTV Now service, aimed squarely at the company's wireless subscribers. But other filings show that AT&T is also cooking up a new 4K-capable set top box for streaming television as well, so the company is clearly taking multiple, concurrent stabs at streaming from a variety of angles.

A leaked memo we obtained a few years back suggested that the company would be migrating away from the DirecTV brand and marketing everything under the AT&T monicker. And while the company subsequently launched DirecTV Now, insiders familiar with AT&T's plans tell DSLReports.com that the retirement of the AT&T brand remains on AT&T's radar as it more heavily pushes its new streaming alternatives later this year.

Most recommended from 24 comments


Tchaika
join:2017-03-20
New Orleans, LA

6 recommendations

Tchaika

Member

Repurpose the Bandwidth Reserved for IPTV???

I don't really think that's a huge consideration Karl. I have Internet 50 VDSL and U300 TV. My modem syncs at roughly 66Mbps down / 13Mbps up. Each IPTV stream uses ~5Mbps, with a max of four allowed. On the backend, they’re multicast streams, so they only send out what their subscribers request, one stream per requested channel, and all those terminals are fiber fed, so.....

Besides, whatever bandwidth they "save" with the retirement of uVerse IPTV is just going to be consumed by DTV Now and other OTT services, in a far less efficient unicast manner.
Bob61571
join:2008-08-08
Washington, IL

5 recommendations

Bob61571

Member

DirecTV has all kinds of Goodwill value,

so why would AT&T kill off that valuable Brand Name?

Goodwill is an accounting term for the value of buying an intangible asset for a premium. Usually because the acquired business has a brand, a good customer base, a good image.

If you surveyed the public, wouldn't DirecTV have a better public image than AT&T?