AT&T to roll our "DirecTV Now" later this year

[Omar_Little]

AT&T will start selling you cable TV over the Internet

But this BYOB – bring your own broadband – offering is a big step forward. One of AT&T’s smaller rivals, Dish Network (DISH), already sells a similar streaming service called Sling TV.

Stankey said its “DirecTV Now” service will be different: While Sling TV is a “skinny bundle,” with just a few dozen channels, “these bundles are going to look much more like” the hundreds of channels that most people already get at home.

So why is this a big deal? Because “DirecTV Now” promises to make a cable TV subscription more portable and convenient – and perhaps more directly competitive with Netflix.

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Another big shift: AT&T says “these services will not require annual contracts, satellite dishes or set-top boxes.”

The evolution of entertainment continues.