AT&T Plans on Killing the DirecTV Name Starting in January Not too surprisingly, AT&T plans to wean users off the DirecTV name after acquiring the satellite TV provider earlier this year for the rock-bottom price of $69 billion. The revelation comes courtesy of an notice posted to AT&T's internal employee website obtained by DSLReports. The notice indicates that the brand shift will begin in January and continue as the company revamps both its U-Verse TV and DirecTV services and end-user hardware.

That will include, as noted previously , moving all U-Verse TV customers to a "derivative" of the equipment currently used by DirecTV. "We will continue to use DirecTV as the product name of our lead TV offer until the launch of our next-generation TV platform," AT&T states in the notice to employees. "Once we have established our next generation TV platform, we plan to transition all TV product names to AT&T Entertainment to symbolize our move to a single entertainment portfolio." It's not entirely clear what that will look like yet. The company has previously stated that it's developing a new gateway that will allow third-party broadband connections, LTE connections and AT&T broadband connections. Users will be offered a mish-mash of options depending on whether or not they're inside AT&T's fiber to the node footprint. AT&T executive John Stankey has said that the carrier is moving to "one consistent architecture" for all TV and broadband users that will involve "very thin hardware profiles," likely a nod to cloud DVR support. The company's set top, router and gateway hardware "will become a consolidated, single platform over the next 24-36 months." Depending on how it's implemented, the unified branding could confuse customers who may not understand whether they're getting satellite or fiber to the node television services. And that may be the point. Such a unified brand may help obscure AT&T's frozen U-Verse deployments and lagging fixed-line broadband speeds. It's also possible AT&T's shifting entirely to satellite television to free up bandwidth on their traditional U-Verse platform. The company was The company was heavily criticized by Wall Street for acquiring a satellite TV provider on the eve of the cord cutting revolution, when its fixed-line FTTN platform already struggled to match cable broadband speeds.







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Most recommended from 98 comments



Economist

The economy, stupid

Premium Member

join:2015-07-10

united state 39 recommendations Economist Premium Member Way to go! Kill off a consumer respected brand image and replace it with one of the worst! Bob61571

join:2008-08-08

Washington, IL 11 recommendations Bob61571 Member DirecTV Vans now show AT&T Death Star logo ONLY Saw DirecTV installer in my neighborhood yesterday. The van did NOT have any DirecTV logos, only the AT&T Death Star logo. However the installer was doing DirecTV work, as we do NOT have AT&T as the local hardwire phone company here.



Shows stupidity of AT&T, as DirecTV has better public opinion ratings than AT&T. BosstonesOwn

join:2002-12-15

Wakefield, MA 8 recommendations BosstonesOwn Member Unification gateways are the next big thing... The devices in the pipe will have an LTE antenna on the dish and feed it down to the gateway to either feed the house broadband or just the box for data and VOD if the house doesn't have the ability to get wired broadband.



Also I look forward to watching the disaster that is ATT mess this up. neufuse

join:2006-12-06

James Creek, PA 7 recommendations neufuse Member consildated... Nothing says "top quality" like a consolidated router, gateway and set top device........ ugh.... jorcmg

join:2002-10-24

USA 4 recommendations jorcmg Member oops



»www.foxsports.com/colleg ··· s-112515 The cord cutting thing is happening.

Jim Gurd

Premium Member

join:2000-07-08

Livonia, MI 3 recommendations Jim Gurd Premium Member Killing the DirecTV Name So, they're getting rid of DirecTV and going with AT&T? AT&T stands for American Telephone and Telegraph. How 20th (and 19th) century is that!!