The DirecTV satellite business lost 251,000 subscribers, while the U-verse TV base shrank by an additional 134,000, which AT&T attributed to "heightened competition in traditional pay-TV and over-the-top services, stricter credit standards and hurricane disruptions." On the other hand, AT&T notes it added 296,000 people for its internet-delivered DirecTV Now package, which now counts 787,000 subscribers.

AT&T has 25.1 million video customers right now, so DirecTV Now is still a small, but increasingly important part of its video business. Most importantly, CEO John J. Stephens said that 700,000 or so of those streaming customers are new to AT&T, so they're not downgrading from other video services, as they're cord-nevers or apartment dwellers it couldn't reach before. That probably also explains the DirecTV Now-ready Android TV box that just passed through FCC testing.

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