re: DirectTV Now Streaming

I don't like the fact that you have to get it now to get all theses promo prices and addons, yet a lot of their promises for dvr and other options won't be here until later. You also know they will lock you in long term to get the apple tv. I learned long ago to stay away from anything owned by AT&T. I will predict now that people will love this for 6 months to a year before AT&T screws this up and pisses everyone off.

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I'm assuming the appletv they give is the latest gen right?

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I assumed so for two reasons. They said that we could walk out of an Apple store with an Apple TV. They are also giving out the latest version of the Fire TV stick.

Yeah, that's the great thing about all this.

I'm going to go for the $35 price lock and prepay for 3 months for the Apple TV. Figure it'll pay for itself and I can give it a shot.

My Fire TV remotes are always screwing up. I need to figure out how to fix them so that I can get DirecTV Now on it.

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The more competition there is, the better off we all will be.

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Exactly, which is why what AT&T is doing here is BAD for consumers. If DirecTV Now is successful with this model of zero-rating their data for AT&T customers, and let's face it, it looks good from the customer's point of view, then that will encourage Verizon/Comcast/etc to put out their own zero-rated streaming services. More "competition" = better, right? No, not at all, if this is how it goes down. If you have AT&T, why would you ever consider Sling or Vue if you are limited to maybe 1-2 hours (or maybe a little more if you pay for a higher data cap) of mobile streaming per month, when you can just get DirecTV Now and your data cap doesn't even matter? AT&T has the ability to modify the value of competing services as necessary to stifle the competition. The same will go for cable ISPs, they can just enforce their data caps so that competing streaming services are simply not an option.


This is why net neutrality is so important. These blatantly non-neutral services look very consumer-friendly on the surface, but they are really designed to limit our choices, keep prices high, and maintain the status quo. We will all end up paying the same companies the same amount of money for the same old products, and the only difference is the way the product is delivered. And I expect this is the way it will go throughout the Trump presidency.

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“[Net neutrality is] an effort by one set of private interests to enrich itself by using the power of the state to obtain free services from another — a classic example of what economists term 'rent seeking,' " Eisenach told lawmakers at the hearing."

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ELL OH frickING ELL

This is actually the classic example of rent-seeking:

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The classic example of rent-seeking, according to Robert Shiller, is that of a feudal lord who installs a chain across a river that flows through his land and then hires a collector to charge passing boats a fee (or rent of the section of the river for a few minutes) to lower the chain. There is nothing productive about the chain or the collector. The lord has made no improvements to the river and is helping nobody in any way, directly or indirectly, except himself.

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Which is EXACTLY what AT&T is doing with DirecTV Now. They installed a chain (data cap), and will now either lower it for a fee for competitors, or only lower it for their own service.

I really don't get the logic of the anti-net neutrality folks. Well, maybe I do get it. It's not supposed to make sense, it's just supposed to make money for their backers.

frick AT&T.
I will never use there service.

I'll stick with Vue. I'd switch back to sling but you still can't use those credentials to log in to the Disney and Nick apps.

It would be ideal if Netflix tried to offer something, much like what Hulu is looking to do.

DirecTV Now vs. Sling TV vs. Playstation Vue: Channel lineups compared

CNET

Is there no iPhone app for this? I signed up this morning for directv now but can't find an app for my phone.

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I subscribed this morning.

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Ditto. I decided to try to stream a bit on my work computer to test it out and none of the videos will load. Hopefully just first day bugs.

I signed up for 3 months as well this morning. It is streaming beautifully on my work computer. Hopefully, it works just as well at home.