DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, and AT&T TV now have 15.9 million subscribers as of Q1 2021, which is down 620K since last quarter and 2.71 million on the year. This is a big improvement from the nearly 900K subscribers they lost in the first quarter last year.
After merging AT&T TV with AT&T TV NOW, which has since been shut down to new customers, the company no longer reports AT&T TV NOW subscribers.
As of the end of 2020, AT&T TV NOW had 656K subscribers. An AT&T spokesperson told The Streamable that remaining AT&T TV NOW subscribers are not included in their premium TV subscribers.
There have been a lot of changes to the service this year, including the sale of 30% of DirecTV, including AT&T TV to private equity firm TPG. The company introduced a new no-contract option to AT&T TV, while bringing an Unlimited DVR and near Unlimited simultaneous streams to the service.
The no contract plans start at $69.99 with their Entertainment Plan with 65+ channels. If you want regional sports including Fox Sports RSNs, their Choice Plan begins at $84.99 (including RSN Fee), which also include HBO Max for one-year. They also have an Ultimate ($94.99 for 130 channels) and Premier ($139.99 for 140 channels).
However, at the same time, existing AT&T TV NOW subscribers saw a $10 price hike to match the new pricing.
Part of the renewed interest of the streaming service has been as a result of their focus on regional sports. They are the only Live TV Streaming Service to offer Bally Sports and YES Network, after the channels were dropped by Hulu, YouTube TV, fuboTV, and Sling TV.
AT&T TV also added eight new Regional Sports Networks to their line-up, Altitude, NESN, Marquee Sports Network, AT&T SportsNet Southwest, [AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh], AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, MASN, and ROOT Sports Northwest, most of which are not available elsewhere.
While it was not reflected in the quarter since the MLB season started on April 1st, the return of NBA and NHL action has given their streaming service a boost.
Hulu Live TV ($65) maintains its lead as the largest Live TV Streaming Service with 4 million subscribers. YouTube TV announced they surpassed three million subscribers in their Q3 earnings report, while Sling TV was the third largest after they added 16K subscribers in Q4, giving them 2.474 million.
Philo is also likely ahead, last reporting they were at 800K subscribers in November. fuboTV ($65) reported they reached 548,000 subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter (72% year-over-year increase)