The AT&T TV app will be available sometime in the "coming weeks," and existing customers will see the change take effect automatically through software updates. More details will be coming when the rollout starts in earnest, AT&T said.

This does save you the trouble of downloading yet another app, and it's more consistent with AT&T's strategy. DirecTV Now doesn't have much to do with satellite TV, so why pretend otherwise? However, the added simplicity doesn't necessarily translate to clarity. Two services in one app might be confusing depending on the execution.

One thing's for certain: this diminishes the power of the DirecTV brand. While there's no evidence that the core DirecTV service is going away, you won't see the name if you're only interested in streaming. That could be significant in an era when AT&T is rapidly bleeding conventional TV customers (it lost 778,000 in the second quarter alone) and will increasingly depend on internet video as a cornerstone of its business.