AT&T TV Will Include 500 Hour DVR, 3 Simultaneous Streams, & Support Google Assistant

AT&T announced today some of the details of their upcoming streaming version of DirecTV, which will be named AT&T TV. The service, which will launch in test markets soon, will be powered by their custom Android TV streaming media player, which they had previously been testing with DIRECTV NOW.

Unlike DIRECTV NOW, which they announced will be rebranded AT&T TV NOW, the service will include a 500 Hour DVR (vs. 20 Hours) and 3 simultaneous streams (vs. 2 streams). While the DVR is much larger than that on DIRECTV NOW, the recording will only last for 90 days. Since the service will include a bigger bundle of channels, there will be over 55,000 on-demand titles at launch. You will also able to install other apps from Google Play like Netflix and Pandora and use it on the streaming box.

One thing that AT&T has yet to release is pricing, but we do have a hint on what it might cost. When AT&T got rid of their legacy DIRECTV NOW plans, they introduced four new “premium” plans called Entertainment, Choice, Xtra, and Ultimate — which range from $93 to $124 a month. The fatter bundles mirror the names of DirecTV packages and likely will be used for the AT&T TV service. It is likely that the streaming box will also cost an additional fee.

In June, John Donovan, AT&T Communications CEO spoke about the company’s upcoming streaming version of the DirecTV service. He feels that “it radically reshapes what your concept of television is.” Donovan continued, “We think we’re going to be really disruptive in the market on features and capability, but we need to evolve our product — and that’s the way we want to do it.”

He said there is a big addressable market of customers that want DIRECTV, but due to line of sight, couldn’t in the past. “We can now call them back up and say, we now have a great opportunity for you.”

The box itself is built on top of Android TV, which means it will highly rely on Google Assistant. Like other Android TV streamers, AT&T TV says that the 4K box will be able to find shows and movies by voice, as well as change controls and ask questions to the Google Assistant. Since it has Bluetooth, you can pair wireless bluetooth headphones and speakers to the device.