Live With It - AT&T TV Now

Before we begin…

The AT&T TV Now streaming package that I have been living with for 3 months no longer exists for new users. In fact, AT&T TV Now itself no longer exists for new users. Earlier this month, AT&T announced the consolidation of AT&T TV Now and AT&T TV after more than two years of continual market share loss in a crowded VOD space and rising subscription costs.

The company is now only offering 3 different package tiers of AT&T TV to new users. A service rep tells me that current AT&T TV Now customers can keep their accounts going as is, but my guess is we’ll get offered temporary sweetheart deals on AT&T TV subscriptions and AT&T TV Now will shut down sooner than later.

WHAT ONCE WAS

Let’s talk about the AT&T TV Now service package options as they were when I signed up. AT&T TV Now used to have a whopping 8 tiers to choose from but I chose Max, which is one tier above the basic tier (weirdly called Plus) - $80/month (45 channels + HBO Max, Cinemax, and some regional sports).

Because I’ve been an on and off YouTube TV subscriber for the past two years, I chose the Max package which was closest to YouTube TV in price to compare key features. Even though YouTube TV is $65, it’s another $15 for HBO Max so they come out roughly the same. AT&T TV Now also used to have 6 tiers above its entry-level tier and Max:

• Entertainment: 65 channels ($93)
• Choice: 85 channels ($110)
• Xtra: 105 channels ($124)
• Ultimate: 125 channels ($135)
• Premier: 140 channels ($183)
• Optimo Mas: 50 Spanish language channels, 40 English language channels ($86)

Clearly those top tiers weren’t going to save anyone any money compared to a cable bill, but they all included a variety of package extras that might have appealed to some users, plus no contracts or cable boxes to deal with.

IN THE SPIRT OF REVIEW

Overall thoughts:

- Easy to set up on my Apple TV. Install the app, go through the credit card process, get a code, no big deal.

- Interface felt a little less clean than YouTube TV, but pretty similar.

- One thing that tripped me up at first was that the channel guide is in alphabetical order. So ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox are scattered within the guide instead of lumped right up top. Same for the cable news channels. Once I figured that out I actually prefer alphabetical, less hunting around for the network I want. You can go through the guide and choose favorites and use that filter too, but the favorites will also show up in alphabetical order.

- YouTube TV offers unlimited DVR recordings, AT&T TV Now offers 500 hours. I will never even use 500 hours so that doesn’t bother me.

- What does bother me is that channels I would just expect to be in my bundle aren’t there, such as Animal Planet, AMC, and HGTV - all are only available in higher tiers. These channels are all included in YouTube TV’s 85 channel lineup. If I had looked more closely upon signup I would have realized this, but then AT&T TV Now would have been more expensive than YouTube TV and that doesn’t make much sense to me.

- Recording a show or series is easy, and a bookmark feature to come back to a show later without recording is handy. Both appear in a menu option called My Library.

- You also have a Watch Now menu option, which shows you thumbnails of programs that are on right now. But it isn’t really clear why they’re in the order they are (not alphabetical), or why this adds much benefit over just scrolling through the guide if you want to know what’s on.

- Then there’s the Discover menu option, which offers a more Netflix-like categorized view of programs like popular, reality, kids, drama, etc. But it includes shows at tiers above mine, which is frustrating because you have to click into the show before you see the “subscribe” banner. If you click “subscribe” AT&T TV Now prompts to you increase your subscription tier from your account on a computer.

But guess what? I can’t do that anymore because AT&T wants me to switch to AT&T TV. The only option I have within my account is to drop down to Plus, the entry-level tier. There is no way to subscribe to a show that’s only offered at a higher tier even if I want to pay more.

I called AT&T customer service for clarification, because even though AT&T TV Now isn’t accepting new subscribers, wouldn’t they want existing customers to pay more? The rep told me he could change my subscription tier for me and that all those higher tiers still existed. So it can be done, but you’d never know that unless you were confused enough to ask the company for help.

CABLE NEWS IN THE TIME OF… NEWS

- I never watched YouTube TV for cable news, mostly just certain sports and occasional award shows. But this Live With It time period started in mid-October, right at the height of the US election frenzy that ended up lasting far longer than Election Day itself. I’m not saying I needed TV in order to keep up with everything, but I was definitely glued to political news more than usual so it was really good timing.

- For the last ten years I used an OTA antenna to get all my live network TV, which was great for major sports. It wasn’t going to give me ESPN or sports-centric channels, but it could always watch things like the Super Bowl. My antenna just doesn’t pick anything up where I currently live. AT&T TV Now is obviously just one of many streaming options for live network TV, but I realize how nice it is to just to have it.

DID I MENTION POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE?

I was watching the NFL Playoffs last weekend and kept pausing the feed here and there. AT&T TV Now claims that you can fast forward after pausing to catch up to live again or jump to somewhere between pause and live. But I couldn’t get it to work. I could unpause and be behind, or I could exit out of the feed and then hop back in and it would start back at live, but neither of those options are fast-forwarding. I tried to fast forward using the web app, same issue.

The AT&T customer service phone number wasn’t working but live chat on the website was, so I got through the completely useless chatbot to a real person who didn’t know how to help me and spent about 45 minutes asking me to please wait while they “checked”. Eventually they left the chat and another person joined and told me they were the floor manager. I repeated my question and they ignored me for about an hour and then disconnected the chat.

I know customer service is often a crapshow and I’m not the first person to complain about AT&T. The company is clearly also phasing out AT&T TV Now and helping customers like me isn’t a priority. But it also ensured that I will never roll over to AT&T TV’s current streaming plans.

FINAL THOUGHTS

- The Max tier of AT&T TV Now no longer exists unless you’re already a subscriber, so it doesn’t really matter if I recommend it or not. But for the sake of argument I wouldn’t recommend the service even if it was still in the running. It doesn’t have the channels YouTube TV has for the same price, and other streaming services like Hulu with Live TV, Fubo, and Philo are all cheaper options depending on your must-have channels.

Thanks for reading! Now, what’s my next Live With It going to be?