AT&T to offer VoD content with Taylor Swift, Witherspoon

Traditionally, users needed a two-year commitment and credit check to get DirecTV, but those requirements are not needed for the new service.

Here are some gadgets supported: Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, Android mobile devices and tablets, LeEco ecotvs and VIZIO SmartCast Displays, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome web browsers.

FILE – In this Monday, May 19, 2014, file photo, traders gather at the post that handles AT&T on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

DirectTV Now will also let you stream live programming on smartphones, tablets, and PCs-options already being offered by traditional cable TV companies. Walt Disney Co., Time Warner, 21st Century Fox Inc., and Comcast Corp.’s NBC-Universal all have at least some channels on Direc-TV Now. HBO and Cinemax can be added for $5 each per month. It is yet to finalize a deal with CBS and Showtime. Also, AT&T Originals will provide on the service content from Joe Buck and Dan Patrick. Now AT&T is entering the game with DirecTV Now, and it’s trying to help itself stand out with special offers like the Go Big discount and the ability for AT&T customers to stream without using their data.

This is rules-free TV for anyone in the US who wants to stream shows and movies anytime, anywhere. The searchable interface will list the trending shows people are watching at all times.

After generating a lot of buzz about their upcoming app-based streaming internet TV service in the past year, AT&T finally detailed DirecTV Now at an event in NY earlier today. There’s no DVR function, a feature that Sling TV recently introduced and which PS Vue also offers. According to analysts polled by UBS, the new service is expected to have more than three million users till the end of fiscal year 2020 that represents a market share of around 20%. There also isn’t a Roku app, though AT&T says that’s coming later. “This is TV your way”, stated John Stankey AT&T’s Entertainment Group CEO.

The launch is as significant as the company’s U-verse broadband launch about 10 years ago, Stankey said. Now, if those are not still enough, you need to spend $70 monthly for the 120-plus channel package.

Future rules on net neutrality are however very much now up in the air, with the incoming Trump administration hostile to the pro-net neutrality rules introduced by the FCC during President Obama’s term in office.