I am an early and proud adopter of DirecTV. Bought my Sony receiver & dish from Best Buy in 1997. Installed it myself. Local channels became available in 2005 and that required a dual Lan dish. DirecTV updated my receiver too. Didn’t cost me a cent. I updated my package for a 2nd receiver in our bedroom. That package upgrade pushed my bill to $92 a month. Its the plus package, Basic channels, plus DIY, Military and another one. I’ve always had excellent service from DirecTV. I’m very loyal to them.
I had seen reports of the AT&T merger. I hoped it would fall through just like the failed attempt at merging with Dish. I called AT&T to pay my monthly UVerse bill last week. The automated voice says *I have two accounts. Which am I calling about? * :dubious: DirecTV’s accounts have already been merged into AT&T. I’m not sure if its all DirecTV’s accounts or only AT&T customers with UVerse accounts. Fortunately I can still pay my DirecTV bill as usual. calling 1-800-directv. Eventually I expect all payments will go through AT&T.
I suggest calling your local AT&T number, select Account services. What does the automated voice say? 1 account or two?
That explains why I’ve been inundated with sales calls trying to push me into UVerse TV. They are offering ridiculously cheap rates for the first year. They are obviously raiding DirecTV’s customer base. Stripping out anyone that gets UVerse or is in the UVerse reception area. Naturally they’ll jack up the rates after the introductory year.
I am extremely worried about the future of DirecTV. A company that I really like. If the urban customers are stolen away. What does that leave? Rural areas that can’t get UVerse? I suspect DirecTV’s customer base could shrink by 60% or more. What incentive is there for AT&T to upgrade and fully support DirecTV’s remaining customers? I’m concerned its going to have a lingering death. Aging equipment won’t get updated. That means service interruptions.
DirecTV’s FAQsays this merger means better service. They don’t mention that AT&T is calling their customers and offering UVerse TV at discount rates.
Fortunately the FCC is in our corner fighting. Thats another reason AT&T is raiding DirecTV’s customer base. If the merger fails, AT&T still wins. They’ve gutted DirecTV’ like a fish.
I’d like to hear from other DirecTV customers. Whats your thoughts? Have you switched to UVerse TV?
My wife and I are just sick over this. So far we’re refusing to switch. I don’t care what introductory rates AT&T offers. I know they’ll get jacked up in a year or two.
You won’t get sales calls from AT&T unless you’re in an area that can get UVerse internet, phone and TV. Its three services they try to sell as a package. I have UVerse internet, phone. The phone is VoIP service (voice over IP).
I kind of regret losing my land line. VoIP isn’t as clear. But it is cheaper.
You’re right that the first year is cheap and then they jack up the rates. That’s seems to be the norm for the industry. I had Uverse for $80/mo with internet and U300 TV which went up to $150 after. However, you can usually get the intro rate if you call to cancel when rates go up. You probably won’t get the rebates they offer new subscribers, but they can generally get you the same packages you see on the website. About 1 month after canceling service, I started getting the new subscriber offers in the mail which had a bonus $400 rebate. So if you don’t mind the hassle of going through the cancel routine, you can generally get the lower rates even after the first year.
I was generally happy with the Uverse service. It worked well and I didn’t have to call for service very often. I’ve never had DirectTV, so I’m not sure how it compares.
One odd thing about Uverse TV is that it doesn’t really have multiple tuners. Rather, it’s more like it’s streaming internet TV. I came from Tivo which had multiple tuners recording at the same time. Each tuner was continually recording and I could switch between them and each one had it’s own recording buffer. Uverse “tuners” are really how many streams it can be downloading. You can’t really switch between tuners. That was an adjustment from my Tivo since I was used to watching something else on tuner B while the show on tuner A had commercials, and then switching back to tuner A to resume later. You can’t do that with Uverse.
I hope that’s just hyperbole. But even then, an odd descriptor.
I have been a DirecTV subscriber since around 2001. I agree, great service. I also have ATT Uverse for phone and hi-speed internet. Uverse has been targeting everyone, not just DirecTV subscribers. I am interested to see how things turn out with the merger as well, but way short of making myself sick over it.
Hey I’m just happy that DirecTV and ESPN finally resolved their differences over the use of the ESPN app.
What puzzles me is why DirecTV wants to merge with AT&T. They know that UVerse TV is an emerging competitor. Why make a deal with a company that is currently stealing away your customers? That doesn’t make much sense to me.
DirecTV is the best dish company out there. Better service and I think they have more subscribers than DishTV. Why do they want to merge with AT&T?
It’s not that the management thinks it’s a good idea to merge with ATT. It’s that ATT’s offer to buy DirecTV from its shareholders at $95 per share over a year ago, when its stock was trading at $80/ share prior to the announcement, a 18% premium. Apparently the DTV stockholders thought it was worth it, as they approved the deal in Sept.'14.
UVerse TV isn’t “like streaming internet TV”. it flat out IS streaming internet TV. That’s how the whole UVerse scheme works- you have ONE big internet connection, and they stream TV to you and route your land-line calls through it as well, while simultaneously providing standard internet service. If I was to get UVerse TV, I’d just need their DVR box- my router/VDSL modem is already sufficient (I have UVerse internet).
I suspect that AT&T will continually sweeten the pot for people in UVerse areas to get them off DirectTV, and likely integrate the programming to where UVerse TV and DirectTV (or “UVerse Satellite”) will be the same thing, just delivered via different mechanisms.
I’d be interested in knowing how the video compression compares between DirecTV and UVerseTV. I see compression artifacts occasionally in very fast moving scenes. We have small tv’s with 20 in screens and no HD service. I assume the artifacts are more noticeable in the big screen sets. We never had any interest in paying extra for HD. TV for us is the news, hgtv, DIY, history, and Discovery. Not exactly prime material for HD.
I’d guess UVerseTV compresses video even more to get it through the internet. But, I don’t know for sure. If someone has a link for a tech article that would be great.
AT&T is looking to purchase Directv so it can diversify and hold onto customers. The Telecom industry is cut-throat. When one carrier cuts its rates the others respond in kind. This is great for us but pretty bad for the companies bottom line. AT&T’s wire line business has been struggleing for a long time since most people have been giving up their hard line for a cell. Uverse was their way to save it… Unfortunately Uverse can only be deployed where AT&T has hard assets and then only in densely populated areas so <40% of the population can even get it . (I’ll never see it)
Directv is meant to fill in the gap so they can get bundle its services and hold their customers. I suspect that we’ll see things like free TV or NFL Sunday ticket streaming to AT&T cells and the like. Dish has had the Sling box so you could watch its TV and I think they see what AT&T is trying to do and is likely why they are now trying to buy T-Mobile.
DirecTV’s accounts have already been merged into AT&T. I’m not sure if its all DirecTV’s accounts or only AT&T customers with UVerse accounts. Fortunately I can still pay my DirecTV bill as usual. calling 1-800-directv. Eventually I expect all payments will go through AT&T.