Demand for online video is booming, no wonder Netflix decided to expand to almost every country on this planet, while conventional networks and even mobile carriers are trying to get a piece of the action by launching their own services. According to a report, AT&T is going to unveil a new online video streaming service later this month, and it’s expected to reveal some hints about the service later today when it reports its fourth-quarter earnings.
Citing a person familiar with AT&T’s plans CNET reports that AT&T could formally unveil the new video streaming service later this month and that it will be released in the next few months. There aren’t a lot of details available as yet about this new service and it remains to be seen whether AT&T will talk about it when it reports quarterly earnings later today.
AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV last year has provided it with a great launchpad to come up with a new online video offering. According to reports the company has been renegotiating its deals with key content providers like HBO, ESPN, Showtime and Viacom. Talks are said to revolve around stacking rights which will enable an AT&T service to offer the back catalog of popular shows like Game of Thrones and allow users to stream them on mobile devices.
Cord-cutters have several options currently, there’s Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, aside from services like Netflix and Hulu. The aforementioned live TV streaming services don’t really offer the back catalog, if AT&T’s service can offer that with a decent selection of networks, it may very well have a winner on its hands.