DIRECTV Now: $35 a month, 100 channels “that are all good”

He went there. At least partway. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D conference, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed that DIRECTV Now, the top tier of their trio of streaming apps, will be $35 for 100 channels. He didn’t say which channels, although it’s been pointed out that the nine companies that have already announced carriage deals with DIRECTV currently have 67 channels. If you add the slate of HBO and Cinemax channels, that could jump up to another 15 channels, although it seems very unlikely you’ll see HBO at that price point.

The other vague promise here is that we’re talking about 100 “good” channels, not infomercial channels or channels that repeat other channels’ content. That’s a pretty big promise, since I’d personally have trouble naming 100 channels in the broadcast and “basic” tiers that meet those criteria.

It’s also not clear what you’ll get for your $35. Does that include any local channels? Does it include any premium or “semi-premium” (AMC, USA, etc) channels? What about sports channels? That’s a pretty low price if you’re actually going to get all the ESPN channels, which are known to be the priciest ones around.

We’ll know soon enough, as the service could be coming our way within the next two weeks.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.