AT&T to launch $15 per month TV streaming service

After officially announcing that it has completed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, AT&T has now revealed its plans of introducing a $15 per month sports-free TV streaming service that will focus on Time Warner’s Turner collection of channels, which include CNN, TBS, TNT (but with no basketball -- because the whole set up is sports-free), and even Cartoon Network. But there is no HBO though.

This upcoming new TV streaming service from AT&T will be officially called AT&T Watch TV. And despite the fact that it comes with a $15 per month pricing, the number two wireless service provider in the United States is actually going to offer the service free of charge to existing subscribers of an AT&T unlimited data plan. Moreover, the national mobile operator has made it clear that AT&T Watch TV will be made available to anybody who wants to sign up, regardless of whether he is a current customer of AT&T or not.

One can probably argue that with the rapid rise in popularity of streaming these days, offerings such as AT&T’s new Watch TV will likely continue to be promoted to consumers. While it is true that a lot of people still have traditional cable TV or satellite TV subscriptions, the thinking is that with the right sales pitch, these consumers might be ready to switch to digital streaming.

Not surprisingly, the competition will be fierce. Philo has a budget friendly (also costing $16 per month) offering that comes with no sports and news channels, but only entertainment networks. The upcoming AT&T Watch TV service should have a slight edge in pricing ($15 per month versus Philo’s $16 per month pricing). Interestingly, Watch TV may even compete with AT&T’s own DirecTV Now service (which rolled out its cloud DVR feature just last month).

The soon to be launched AT&T Watch TV though should provide some measure of flexibility. Randall Stephenson, the chief executive officer of AT&T, had hinted that the new service should align smoothly with the company’s mobile distribution targets. However, no details have been made public yet on whether the service will be for smartphones and tablet devices only, or also come with full support for streaming on TVs (perhaps through boxes like Apple TV or Roku). To know more about Watch TV, head to CNBC’s report now featuring an interview with Stephenson. For more deals, explore AT&T deals at MyRatePlan today.