AT&T raises DirecTV prices again despite the loss of millions of customers

Enlarge / A DirecTV satellite dish seen outside a bar in Portland, Oregon in October 2019.

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AT&T announced a new round of DirecTV and U-verse TV price increases, saying that monthly rates will increase by up to $ 8 per month from January 19. “Because our programming costs went up, we have to increase our monthly prices for selected packages,” AT&T said in a message titled “TV price changes for 2020.” An additional $ 2 increase on the cost of the Regional Sports Network means that some customers pay another $ 10 a month.

The $ 8 per month increase applies to the DirecTV Premier subscription that currently costs $ 189. An increase of $ 7 applies to the Ultimate package that costs $ 135 and to the Xtra package that costs $ 124; a $ 5 increase applies to the Choice Plan that costs $ 110; an increase of $ 4 applies to the Select package that costs $ 81 per month and to the Entertainment package that costs $ 93; and increases of $ 1 or $ 3 apply to basic plans.

Customers with promotional prices will “keep the discount until it expires” and then pay the new, higher price, AT&T said. Promotional prices usually last a year and have discounts ranging from $ 21 to $ 55 per month.

In addition to raising the overall service plan rates, AT&T said the rates of the Regional Sports Network will increase by $ 1.50 to $ 2 per month. The sports money varies by location, but is around $ 10 in many large cities; You can look up the costs by postcode on this AT&T page.

For U-fresh TV, AT & T’s regular shipping service, $ 3 is added to the U-family plan that currently costs $ 84.99; $ 5 is added to both the U-200 and U-300 subscriptions that cost $ 107 and $ 124, respectively; and $ 7 is added to the U-450 subscription that currently costs $ 154. The costs for broadcast TV that cost $ 6.99 or $ 7.99 will increase $ 2 per month.

AT&T has previously increased prices in January 2019 with comparable amounts. Previous price increases have contributed to AT&T losing nearly 5 million satellite and wired TV customers since the end of 2016, and more than 1.3 million in the most recent quarter alone.

Comcast is also raising prices this month and eliminating the option to get one DVR set-top box for free, Cord Cutters News reported. The average rate for Comcast TV rises from $ 10 to $ 14.95 from this month. “In general, most Comcast customers will see invoices increase by around 3.3 percent – a weighted average based on subscribers with one to three products – versus 3.4 percent last year,” Broadcasting & Cable reported. Cox and Charter also raise rates.

Comcast blamed the “rising programming costs – especially for television broadcasts and sports.” Comcast and AT&T are partly responsible for the rising programming costs of the industry due to Comcasts owned by NBCUniversal and AT & T’s owned by Time Warner.

Disclosure: the Advance / Newhouse Partnership, which owns 13 percent of the Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.

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