Consolidated Communications will begin marketing AT&T’s OTT streaming service DIRECTV NOW, the company announced today. DIRECTV NOW (DTVN) offers a streaming live channel line-up and video-on-demand and is positioned as a lower-cost option to traditional pay-TV video, delivered over-the-top.
It’s an interesting move for Consolidated, considering they already offer their own traditional pay-TV service. It illustrates a changing telco video landscape, where telcos who were once quite active with IPTV for the triple play bundle capability, are now looking for creative and alternative ways to offer video, with OTT options looking more appealing, particularly for larger carriers who have scale.
Windstream just recently announced they will also offer DTVN. It would not be surprising to see CenturyLink do the same in the near future. CenturyLink recently ended their own branded streaming video beta and will probably be looking for a replacement.
CenturyLink executives have publicly discussed their preference for streaming OTT options over their own Prism IPTV service, with their CEO suggesting they will eventually discontinue Prism. CenturyLink even suggested DTVN as a potential option for them, while they were conducting a beta of their own streaming service. You have to wonder if Windstream feels the same for their legacy IPTV service, Kinetic.
Of course AT&T has also discontinued their IPTV service U-verse TV in favor of satellite-based Directv and DTVN. AT&T has gone further, saying DTVN is their platform of choice for future video service, and they are actively evolving it to become their main video offer.
Consolidated DIRECTV NOW Offer
Consolidated is offering DTVN for now through a DTVN website, which as of right now, lacks any Consolidated branding. It appears to be a strict resale agreement. A Consolidated spokesperson declined to provide any details regarding the resale business partnership. The spokesperson did confirm that there is no current unified billing for DTVN.
But Consolidated did say they intend to continue to offer their traditional IPTV service and DTVN is viewed as a complementary service. In fact, it’s not the first streaming partnership for Consolidated. They also resell a DTVN competitor, fuboTV. These partnerships may not end here.
“Each is unique and has a targeted demographic following,” the spokesperson tells Telecompetitor. “There are others that fit demographic profiles and we look to expand our OTT and complimentary linear offering where they make sense.”
