
AT&T Hikes Online-TV Prices Up to 30% in Second Boost This Year - JadoJodo
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-18/at-t-hikes-online-tv-prices-up-to-30-in-second-boost-this-year
======
biesnecker
> AT&T has retreated from competitive pricing and said goodbye to more than
> 2.3 million TV subscribers in the past year.

I know that accounting-wise this "makes sense," but marginal costs after
rolling out the physical network are pretty close to zero, right? How is
shedding 2.3 million TV subscribers a profitable move?

~~~
bluedevil2k
If the price increase is greater (30%) then the customers shed (5-10% I’m
estimating), then it’s profitable.

~~~
neogodless
According to that TechCrunch article, AT&T only has 1.3 million subscribers
left. So they lost more than half. The math is not making sense to me. (Unless
they lose money on every subscriber, and were hoping to make it up with
volume! Ha!)

~~~
bluedevil2k
No, I think they said they have 1.3M subscribers at that price tier and the
price increase is only affecting them.

And to go back to your original point, each additional customer does create
variable costs. At&t has to pay carrier fees for every subscriber. A customer
pays $6/month for ESPN, $0.60 for NatGeo, etc. Maybe the old price tier wasn’t
covering the carriage fees + equipment + labor to install

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xienze
I jumped on DirecTV Now early on when they were offering a free Apple TV when
you did a minimum of three months at $35 for the "Go Big" package. Even
without the ATV it was a legitimately good deal.

Then last year they went to $40... still a good deal. Then once they hit $50 a
few months later I dropped them because there are plenty of other services at
that price point. Now it's $65? They're out of their minds.

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matxip
Comcast, not AT&T, but my mom recently discovered that her Turner Classic
Movie channel was not longer activated. After talking to someone on the phone
(who suggested a service technician visit), she independently discovered that
TCM was being moved to a sports package along with a military history channel
and a country music channel.

It was a watershed moment for her. Apparently, there are online services that
provide TCM, and now she's considering downgrading her cable service rather
than upgrade it and getting an online service to make up the difference.

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neonate
[http://archive.is/oyTaN](http://archive.is/oyTaN)

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jascii
A non-paywalled article on the same issue:
[https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/att-tv-now-streaming-
servi...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/att-tv-now-streaming-service-gets-
yet-another-price-hike/)

Do people even watch tv anymore?

~~~
scarface74
I thought this old Slashdot feigned ignorance meme died over ago. “do people
still watch TV? I haven’t owned a TV in 20 years”.

A quick Google search of the percent of pay TV subscribers will answer that
question for you.

~~~
jascii
Thanks for assuming "feigned ignorance". I indeed have not owned a television
in a long time and any attempts at watching one lead to migraine attacks.
Considering that the articles about this rate hike specifically mention
dropping subscriber numbers, it seems a fair question to ask. I expected a
higher level of discourse on HN.

~~~
scarface74
But if you live in any industrialized country and have relatives or friends or
joust listen to people talk in the office, you would know thst most people own
TVs.

Only 2.6% of households in the US don’t own TVs
([https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-tvs-in-american-
hom...](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-tvs-in-american-homes-number-
us-department-energy-2017-3)). Statistically, it would be hard to think that
you would encounter too many people that don’t watch TV.

The smart phone penetration rate is actually lower. Would you be incredulous
if someone said “do people actually use smart phones? I haven’t owned one in
ten years”.

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chank
Don't need to have competitive pricing if there isn't anyone to really compete
against.

~~~
scarface74
Well, seeing that the article is specifically about AT&T Now that is delivered
over the Internet, they compete against Sling, PSVue, Hulu Live TV, and
YouTube Tv.

