Anyone who follows the streaming space knows that a lot of new players are looking to get in on the game. Apple and AT&T are two of the first that come to mind. While Apple has released quite a bit of information about their service, AT&T has remained rather tight lipped until recently.
AT&T’s CEO of Communications John Donovan recently gave some remarks about the new service at the Credit Suisse Communications Conference in New York. While he did speak highly of the upcoming streaming service, he gave remarkably few details.
It’s the consumer product I’m most excited about since the iPhone. It radically reshapes what your concept of television is,” said Donovan “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.”
What exactly does all of that mean? It means that AT&T has high expectations for this product. Whether those expectations are unfounded remains to be scene. With so many big players already years into the game, it’s hard to imagine how AT&T is going to disrupt the industry in any big way.
Donovan provided a bit more insight when he remarked that “The fundamental issue around TV is — using broad-brush numbers — you have to know what the customer is willing to pay 100 bucks for…Trying to give them 100 bucks of value for $40 or $50 or $60, that’s not going to be a fit that is going to work for the customer or the organization in the long run.”
Taking that comment into account, it is reasonable to assume that AT&T may try to play around with the traditional packaging framework that most broadcasting services have relied on in the past. What exactly will that look like? Your guess is as good as ours.
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AT&T’s CEO Says Their New Streaming Service Will “Radically Reshape” Your Views of TV