Like some of its competitors, AT&T has opted to completely remove Viacom’s lineup of cable networks in an effort to keep its own costs down. But AT&T would likely argue that if you were already paying $50 for Live a Little and HBO before, that price effectively continues on with these revamped packages. This is actually the second hike for those DirecTV Now subscriptions. This is yet another instance of AT&T increasing rates after it argued that its acquisition of Time Warner would result in reduced prices for consumers. And if you’re currently paying the extra $5 monthly fee to receive HBO, that’s going to jump up to $15 with this month’s bill. Holding onto those bundles - no longer offered to new customers as of today - is also going to get more expensive: AT&T will hike monthly rates by $10 across the entire line as of April 12th. At least for the time being, AT&T is saying that existing customers will maintain access to their current channel bundles so long as they remain with the service and don’t change anything.īut if you cancel your subscription, there’s no getting the older plans (Live a Little, Just Right, Go Big, and Gotta Have It) back again.
Those are all channels that were part of DirecTV Now’s previous plans but have gone away entirely with today’s new Plus and Max plans. Getting your Game of Thrones fix is nice and all, but the new plans slash many channels that potential customers might value. The step-up $70 Max package adds Cinemax and a few more sports channels from ESPN and Fox.
That’s the most expensive base plan of the big five (DirecTV Now, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, Sling TV, YouTube TV), but none of the others include HBO. In hopes of making up the difference, AT&T is adding HBO to DirecTV Now’s latest, smaller channel packages that now start at $50 per month. AT&T has confirmed that it is dramatically reshaping its DirecTV Now streaming TV service beginning today by getting rid of the previously offered channel bundles, slimming down programming for new plans, and raising prices.