Cable TV finally has real competition delivered over the internet

AT&T finally took the wraps off DirecTV Now, its new streaming TV service, and it’s just what it said it was going to be: The base package, for now, is $35 a month for more than 100 channels.

That’s a lot cheaper than a traditional pay TV service — and a lot cheaper than DirecTV’s own satellite TV service.

Of course, there are strings attached. Or more precisely, there are things that aren’t attached to DirecTV Now. WSJ’s Shalini Ramachandran helpfully summarized them in 140 characters:

And if this is something you’re thinking about buying, I have some notes at the bottom of this post.

For the rest of you: The most important thing about DirecTV Now isn’t the list of features, or lack of them.

What’s important about DirecTV now is that it’s the first time a deep-pocketed company has pushed out a streaming TV service designed to appeal to a big swath of U.S. customers.

Which means traditional pay TV services, which have operated regional fiefdoms, with very limited competition, for years, are now going to have to contend with a national rival. And more are on the way.

DirecTV Now is not the first national TV streaming service. Dish’s Sling led the way last year, and Sony’s PlayStation Vue followed up.

But Sling is more of a streaming sampler platter: You can pick ESPN or Fox, plus a couple dozen other channels, but it’s not supposed to get you everything. PlayStation Vue is meant to be a full-fledged service, but Sony hasn’t really leaned into the launch, and the service’s initial tether to Sony’s game console meant it excluded lots of potential customers.

DirecTV Now, even with its limitations, is meant to appeal to people who want to pay for TV, but don’t want to get traditional cable for whatever reason. Maybe they don’t want a contract. Or maybe they don’t want to deal with a set-top box, or installation, or whatever.

So now it provides real competition for Comcast (which is a minority investor in Vox Media, which owns this site) and Charter and the rest of the regular pay TV guys. (That includes DirecTV itself, which is by design: AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson would be happy to move some of his traditional DirecTV customers over to his digital service, figuring it’s better to cannibalize them himself then lose them to somebody else.)

And it’s just the start. Next year Hulu, the streaming service owned by three of the big TV networks, will launch its own live TV service, which should look quite a bit like DirecTV. Google’s YouTube is working on a version that’s supposed to include a much smaller bundle of traditional TV networks along with a lot of YouTube stuff.

And now that AT&T’s in the market, expect more of the traditional TV guys to follow suit. Comcast, for instance, has been mulling a service like this for years. I’d be surprised if it let new competitors enter its existing markets without trying to branch out with a nationwide service of its own.

None of these services will be mind-blowing on their own. They’re all going to offer a bundle of TV networks you can watch live or on demand.

But they will start to vary in terms of what they offer and how much they sell it for. And if you’re used to little or no choice at all, that’s going to seem like a big deal.

NBC

How good is DirecTV Now’s deal? Depends on what you watch.

DirecTV Now will sell you more than 100 TV channels for $35 a month, for now. Should you buy it?

That depends on what you like to watch and how you like to watch it.

If you like watching shows on CBS, then DirecTV is not for you, since for now, DirecTV doesn’t have a deal with CBS.*

If you like watching shows on the other broadcast networks — ABC, Fox and NBC — then you need to do a little bit of research. If the local broadcast stations in your city are owned by the networks they broadcast, then you’re in luck: DirecTV will carry their programming live. If not, then you’ll have to wait a day to watch whatever they’re showing.

Whether or not that’s a deal-breaker is up to you. I’m fine watching “Shark Tank” weeks after it airs; you may insist on watching “The Voice” live.

Many of you don’t watch any broadcast TV at all,and will be happy to watch DirecTV Now’s cable networks like CNN, ESPN and AMC, which will all stream live. Takes all kinds.

Bear in mind that network ownership of local stations isn’t consistent, so it’s quite possible that some of your local stations will be carried live by DirecTV Now, but others won’t.

In New York City, for instance, ABC, Fox and NBC own the local stations, so no problem there. But in, say, Minneapolis, you’d only be able to watch live programming via Fox’s KMSP; if you wanted to watch something on KSTP, the ABC affiliate owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, you’d have to wait. Ditto for KARE (really), the NBC affiliate owned by something called Tegna.**

And while DirecTV Now plays up the idea that you can watch this stuff on the go, on your phone, that doesn’t apply to NFL games, which remain locked up via an exclusive Verizon deal.

DirecTV Now also doesn’t have a DVR option, though the company says one is in the works. And it notes that lots of its programming will be available on demand, which may be plenty for most people.

One big plus for DirecTV Now is a deal with Time Warner’s HBO, which means customers can add that channel for $5 a month — that’s $10 a month less than you’d pay for the service via HBO Now.

And one last thing to keep in mind: The $35/month for a 100+ channels is a limited-time offer. Eventually, DirecTV will sell that tier for $60 a month, but will keep the $35 price for anyone who signed on before the price hike.

* Though one option would be to buy DirecTV Now and then augment it with All Access, CBS’s own streaming service, for $6 or $10 a month.

** Which, it turns out, is the TV and digital spinout that used to be part of Gannett.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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