Weekly Digest from the West
Jean-Baptiste Piron
Cultural Attaché I Attaché culturel I Québec Office Los Angeles
-The rise of streaming is sapping cable TV programming: Cable TV networks are contending with an existential crisis. Not only are their linear TV audiences eroding, but so is the market for programming they can acquire to keep the viewers they have and attract new ones. Right now, cable TV networks find themselves at the mercy of a market that is consolidating and coalescing around streaming. Media conglomerates like the Walt Disney Company, WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS are withholding their studios’ programming for their streaming services. “It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster with the emergence of all these huge mega-platforms owned by big media companies. They’re pulling back content for their own platforms,” said an executive at one cable TV network. Cable TV networks that are not owned by the major media companies and that had relied on shows from the conglomerates to populate their channels find themselves scrambling. “We can’t acquire programming that would perform on the network like we did previously,” said an executive at another cable TV network. A dried-up programming acquisition market compounds the challenges already facing the cable TV networks that are not part of the major conglomerates. The decline of linear viewership for general-interest cable TV networks has hurt their pitch to advertisers searching for large audiences, especially as streaming companies like Hulu are able to make a similar pitch while offering more refined targeting options. The audience declines also negatively affect cable TV networks involved in carriage negotiations with pay-TV providers. While the networks angle for fee increases, the providers are becoming more willing to drop channels, as Comcast did with Fuse at the end of 2018. The cable TV networks are trying to develop original shows that are designed as much for their linear channels as for streaming platforms. “We have to extend it in ways that go beyond what we’ve done on the linear network and make us more relevant in these [streaming] environments,” said the first network executive. But the challenge in developing shows for streaming is ensuring that they pay off. “Good premium programming costs a lot of money, and right now [ad-supported streaming] does not pay for that,” said the second network executive. Some cable TV networks have found success in starting subscription-based streaming services. (AMC Networks, for example, has horror-centric streaming service Shudder.) But they have largely needed to concentrate those services on particular genres in order to attract specific audiences of people willing to pay for programming that’s hard to come by elsewhere. Other cable networks are devising strategies on how they might pivot from operating solely as a general-interest cable TV networks to one that also launches genre-specific, subscription-based streaming services.
https://digiday.com/media/rise-streaming-sapping-cable-tv-programming/
-The Streaming Wars: Is YouTube the Sleeping Giant? Marques Brownlee might not be a household name at this point, but his tech-focused YouTube channel boasts an impressive 10 million subscribers. In total, his videos have amassed over 1.6 billion views, and most of those views are likely from younger audiences. In fact, a recent Piper Jaffray survey showed that Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube has surpassed Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) as the streaming platform of choice among teens. Teens self-reported spending an average of 37% of their streaming time watching YouTube compared to 35% viewing Netflix. Hulu and Amazon Prime Video were far behind at 7% and 5%, respectively. It’s in the context of these numbers that YouTube's inclusion in any speculation on the leading contenders in the streaming market becomes imperative. An army of content creators: Far from the bidding wars over high-priced content playing out in the marketplace between Netflix, Disney (NYSE:DIS), Amazon, others, YouTube is growing thanks to low-cost, user-produced content. Brownlee is not an outlier as far as popularity on the streaming platform goes. There are countless YouTube content creators out there with massive subscriber bases tuning into channels that cover everything from nursery rhymes and short films to the latest gadget and movie reviews. The audience to these videos is not just restricted to teens and young adults. As so many internet searches begin, you "Google it" and before you know, you're merrily clicking on the top links and checking out the related videos on YouTube. Google knows this, and it has been slowly but surely trying to cash-in on this audience base. Related to these efforts is YouTube's steady progress making original programming. Produced with low budgets and thrown into the mix of user-created content, YouTube originals have been capturing, in their own right, a sizable amount of interest for shows like the cult hit Cobra Kai, which is based on The Karate Kid film series.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/05/the-streaming-wars-is-youtube-the-sleeping-giant.aspx
-Spike Lee to Lead Cannes Film Festival Jury: Director and activist Spike Lee will serve as jury president of the 73rd edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Lee succeeds Alejandro G. I?árritu, whose 2019 jury awarded the Palme d’Or to Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite,” which won a Golden Globe and was just nominated for six Oscars. The Brooklyn-based director has had a strong relationship with Cannes dating back to the 1980s with “She’s Gotta Have It” and “Do the Right Thing,” which marked his first film playing in competition. His latest movie, “BlacKkKlansman,” competed at the festival in 2018 and won the Grand Prix. Weaving together comedic elements with a detective thriller and political saga, the critically acclaimed movie went on to earn Lee an Oscar nomination for best director, along with a flurry of awards. “To me, the Cannes Film Festival (besides being the most important film festival in the world — no disrespect to anybody) has had a great impact on my film career. You could easily say Cannes changed the trajectory of who I became in world cinema,” said Lee, who’s championed many young filmmakers through his career, including Ladj Ly, whose feature debut “Les Miserables” competed at Cannes last year and was just nominated for the best international feature film Oscar. “In this life I have lived…my biggest blessings have been when they arrived unexpected, when they happened out of nowhere,” added the filmmaker, who said that he was “shocked, happy, surprised and proud all at the same time” when he was offered the opportunity to preside over the 2020 jury.
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/spike-lee-cannes-film-festival-jury-president-1203465205/
-Apple may need to adopt a content acquisition strategy for its streaming service as competition hots up: While bundling Apple TV+ at no additional cost with new devices is central to the group's TV and hardware strategy, with only 45 hours of premium, original programming (Nov 2019), the stand-alone $4.99 a month price for the streaming service make it currently the most expensive in the US on a cost-per-hour basis. Other similarly priced services, such as Acorn TV ($4.99), CBS All Access ($5.99), BritBox ($6.99) and Disney+ ($6.99) all offer over 3,000 hours of content. Apple has reportedly been in talks with MGM in a bid to acquire content to bolster the Apple TV+ catalogue, which will be particularly important when its free trial periods start to elapse for early adopters. MGM owns the rights in the US to popular franchises such as James Bond, Rocky, Robocop and long-running sci-fi show Stargate SG-1. Franchises are particularly important for global streaming services because they provide the opportunity to create spin-off shows. On a subscription cost per hour basis, the three major services, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu offer the best value for money. Amazon Prime Video has 63,500 hours of content for a monthly price at only $12.99, although much of this is made up of a long tail or lower value content. Hulu, whilst offering a smaller number of titles than Netflix (5,437 to Netflix’s 7,239), has a strong focus on TV series, with a large number of long running shows, resulting in more content hours. Upcoming service HBO Max is targeting a launch catalogue of 10,000 hours of content and NBCUniversal's Peacock is aiming for 15,000 hours. HBO Max will offer double the content currently available through HBO Go, for the same price of $14.99 per month. The high-quality HBO titles will sit alongside additional Warner Brothers content, including a library of hit blockbusters (such as A Star is Born) and series (such as Friends and Pretty Little Liars). Peacock, which is expected to offer an ad-free premium subscription tier for $10.00 a month, alongside an ad-supported version for $5.00 a month, will be the fourth largest service in the US. With competition hotting up and catalogue size a differentiating factor, an acquisition strategy for Apple looks increasingly likely.
https://www.ampereanalysis.com/insight/apple-has-its-eye-on-mgm
-How tech is catering to the elderly and caregivers: At CES 2020, tech’s biggest trade show, it was heartening to see that the tech industry is paying attention to the needs of the elderly and the younger people who provide care for the elderly. I’ve paid attention to this since my 86-year-old mother has severe dementia and lives in a memory care home in Silicon Valley. For years, I couldn’t find any technology that she could handle or that could make my life easier. But I’m happy to see that many tech companies now get it. Our generation is about to be overwhelmed with caregiving tasks for the elderly, and we need some help. CES 2020 had 2.9 million square feet of space and 4,500 exhibitors in Las Vegas. Most of the tech for the elderly was in the health and wellness marketplace in the Sands Expo, which was up 25% in exhibitors and 15% in square footage.“The role technology will play in health monitoring and self-treatment is already in great demand for eldercare and to anyone that needs to keep track of their health,” said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Technologies who has attended 50 CES events over the decades, in an email. “It will be one of the more important growth markets in tech in the next 20 years.” I noticed the trend at CES 2019, and what was different compared to the past is that it wasn’t just startups with attentive CEOs who were coming up with these products. Big companies were paying attention as well to the human side of technology, from sex tech to mom products. And it makes sense. The American Association of Retired Persons said in “2019 Tech Trends and the 50+” that 115 million Americans over 50 represent an enormous market for technology and that by the end of the next decade this group is projected to spend $84 billion on tech products. One of the problems is that technologists have been designing cool products that don’t resonate with older people. Jitterbug created its retro cell phones because fancy products like the iPhone just weren’t designed for older people. And some of the products also weren’t designed with much younger caregivers in mind either. “Social robots have struggled to find a home in recent years,” said Steve Koenig, vice president of market research at the Consumer Technology Association, in a press briefing. “If you have an aging loved one at home, you want the peace of mind to know that their medication was dispensed. Treating people, like seniors with Alzheimer’s, requires a focus on the human-machine interaction.”
-Yac is reinventing voicemail for the Slack generation: With distributed workforces all the rage in the tech community these days, startups are trying to build new tools to keep those teams connected and communicating in the ways that make folks most comfortable. One of these companies is the Orlando, Fla.-based startup, Yac, which just raised $1.5 million in financing from a clutch of investors to reinvent voicemail for teams raised on Slack and Zoom calls. The digital, distributed workforce is a phenomenon that’s on the rise, and the increasing number of remote workers shows no sign of slacking. Indeed, new statistics indicate that 3% of Americans are working from home full time these days. These remote workforces can reduce costs for both young and mature companies alike, but they come with certain trade-offs and can make communication and collaboration more difficult, according to Yac co-founder Justin Mitchell. He points to the problems with communication and culture at Away, which contributed to the ouster of that company’s chief executive (who was later re-hired). Yac addresses the issue of providing verbal feedback and communication asynchronously instead of needing to respond in real time. Email and voicemail also perform these asynchronous communication functions, but Mitchell says that they’re just not tools that respond to the needs of the modern workforce. So far, there are 4,500 messages a month left on Yac’s service, and the company has around 250 daily active users.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/15/yac-is-reinventing-voicemail-for-the-slack-generation/
-STXfilms and Amazon Prime Video Sign Multi-Year European Output Deal: STXfilms and Amazon Prime Video have signed a multi-year, multi-territory output deal that gives the streaming service exclusive rights to STX movies in France. The pact marks the first time a global streamer has entered a multi-year, all-rights slate agreement in France. Under the deal, Amazon Prime Video will also have exclusive first pay SVOD window rights to STX films in the U.K. and Italy. As such, STX’s mid-budget, star-studded movies will become a key part of Prime Video’s growing premium offering in Europe. In the U.K., where STX handles the distribution of its own films, the partnership with Prime Video in meant to fast-track STX’s plans to grow its slate, following recent popular releases such as “Hustlers” (pictured), “I Feel Pretty” and “Den of Thieves.” The two companies previously collaborated in the U.K. on films such as “21 Bridges” and “Peppermint.” In Italy, Prime Video will provide a direct output for first pay SVOD rights, while STX will keep working with its preferred partners in Italy for other rights, including theatrical. “We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Prime Video in such a meaningful way, putting together a truly unprecedented deal that reflects the value of our slate in a changing international marketplace,” said John Friedberg, president of STXinternational.
-Comcast launches accelerator for sports start-ups that could give it a leg up on new technology: Comcast said Tuesday it is launching a new accelerator for start-ups that could help it leverage a multibillion dollar market opportunity in sports. The cable giant said Tuesday its rationale for the venture, called SportsTech, includes the opportunity to acquire or test new technology and to get an early look at new sports-tech trends. The company sees growth in areas like legalized sports betting and smart stadiums, which are expected to reach $287 billion by 2021 and $12.5 billion by 2023, respectively. “The demand for sports technology across the globe has never been greater, yet most sports startups don’t have access to the resources they need to succeed nor an ability to develop relationships with the right people inside the industry,” Jenna Kurath, Comcast Cable’s vice president of start-up partner development, said in a statement. Partnering with Boomtown, an accelerator operator based in Colorado, Comcast will select 10 start-ups that identify as best matches for its sports tech categories, which include fantasy and sports betting, esports, and fan/player engagement. Companies that are selected will receive $50,000 of investment capital and $1.7 million total in perks. They will also attend a 12-week course at Comcast Cable’s Central Division headquarters in Atlanta. In return, the start-ups will provide a minimum of 6% equity for the capital and resources they receive through SportsTech to Comcast and Boomtown. The accelerator will be the third of its kind for Comcast, who started LIFT Labs in Philadelphia and The Farm, which is also in Atlanta and run by Boomtown. Comcast has six other partners on SportsTech, including NASCAR, USA Swimming and U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/14/comcast-launches-accelerator-for-sports-start-ups.html
-Survey: Most consumers only willing to pay $20 per month for streaming TV, would prefer ads instead: Following the launch of Apple TV+ in November, more streaming services are coming in 2020. A new survey from The Trade Desk, cited by CNBC, says that the majority of consumers in the United States aren’t willing to pay more than $20 per month total on streaming services. According to the survey of over 2,600 people, 59% of Americans won’t pay more than $20 per month for all of their streaming TV needs, while 75% said they won’t exceed $30. With Netflix being the clear market leader and charging $13 per month, that doesn’t leave a lot left over for consumers to spend on other services every month.The survey also found that 53% of consumers would be more willing to watch an ad “on every other episode of a show” if it meant cheaper monthly subscription rates. 68% of people surveyed said they would be “willing to watch ads relevant to their interests in order to watch fewer ads overall.” NBC’s upcoming “Peacock” streaming service is expected to offer a completely free, advertising-supported tier, a limited-advertising version for $5, and an ad-free version for $10 per month. This is seemingly NBC’s attempt at securing both sides of the market: Those who don’t want to pay for another streaming service, and those who would rather pay than watch ads. Of course, the counterargument to this survey is that you don’t have to subscribe to multiple streaming services at the same time. Instead, you can subscribe to Netflix while you watch content there for a few months, then switch to Hulu and Apple TV+ for a few months, and so on.
-Netflix Projected to Spend More Than $17 Billion on Content in 2020: Netflix is keeping its foot pressed firmly on the gas pedal in the streaming-video road race. The streamer will invest around $17.3 billion this year in content on a cash basis, according to a new forecast by Wall Street firm BMO Capital Markets. That’s up from around $15.3 billion in 2019. And Netflix is not expected to ease up anytime soon: Its content spending will top $26 billion by 2028, per BMO’s report. On an amortized P&L expenditure basis, Netflix’s content spending will be about $11.1 billion in 2020, the analyst firm predicts. The forecast comes ahead of Netflix’s scheduled fourth-quarter 2019 earnings report on Tuesday, Jan. 21, after market close. Investors will be reading the tea leaves for how Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus, among the first entrants in a new wave of new subscription VOD rivals, affected Netflix’s subscriber growth in the year-end period. “We continue to believe the ‘streaming wars’ narrative is false and there will be multiple winners in global streaming,” BMO’s Dan Salmon wrote in the research note. The analyst continues to maintain “buy” ratings on the stocks of Netflix, Amazon and Disney together. For Q4, Netflix is expected to turn in “a solid quarter,” Cowen & Co. analyst John Blackledge wrote in a note Thursday. In the year-end period, Netflix debuted a record 802 hours of original programming (up 3% year-over-year), including Oscar contenders “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story.” The effect of Disney Plus on Netflix’s U.S. subscriber churn “will be manageable” relative to previous guidance, Blackledge added: “We continue to believe Netflix will hit or exceed its U.S. paid net add guide.” He also pointed to Cowen’s December 2019 U.S. survey finding Netflix continues to be the top pick when consumers were asked which platform they use the most to view content on TVs: Netflix led with 25% of total respondents, followed by basic cable (18%), broadcast (17%) and YouTube (13%). Most of Netflix’s content budget for 2020 and beyond will be on originals, according to BMO. Recently announced projects include Netflix’s multi-year pact with Nickelodeon for animated originals; a multiyear film and TV deal with “Game of Thrones” duo David Benioff and Dan Weiss; and a three-year deal with South Korean media conglomerate CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon for originals and licensed titles as well as a pact with Korean producer JTBC Content Hub. Salmon called the Korea content deals “a stepping stone to scaling subs in one of [the Asia Pacific region’s] wealthiest and largest addressable markets.”
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/netflix-2020-content-spending-17-billion-1203469237/
-TiVo Says Cord Cutters Use an Average of 6.9 Services, With AVOD on the Rise: TiVo has released their Video Trends Report for Q4 of 2019, covering consumer opinions and key trends in the TV industry. The report shows how viewers are getting their content and where some of the top streaming services ranked among respondents in Q4. The study found that respondents use an average of 6.9 services to watch TV. That number includes both paid and free sources. When it comes to Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributer services (vMVOD) Hulu topped the list of most popular services. However, TiVo notes that smaller services like Philo could be in a position to gain popularity as viewers look for more affordable options as the average number of subscriptions continues to grow. Here’s the breakdown of most popular vMVODs.
? Hulu with Live 8%
? YouTube TV 7.1%
? AT&T TV NOW 4.2%
? Sling TV 3.7%
? PlayStation Vue 2.8% (This study was conducted before Sony announced it would shut down PlayStation Vue.)
While new paid streaming services are hitting the market, the TiVo study shows that ad-supported services are gaining ground. YouTube remains the most popular source of free content, followed by Facebook, and free videos from network sites growing by 31.9% from last year. 37.5% of respondents said they’re very satisfied with ad-supported video on demand. Here’s the full breakdown of ad supported streaming services (AVOD) survey respondents preferred in Q4
- YouTube 73.1%
- Facebook 62.3%
- Free Video from Networks 45.3%
- Snapchat 29.3%
- Roku Channel 24.4%
- Crackle 20.1%
- Tubi 18.5%
- Vevo 18.4%
- Twitch 17.6%
- XUMO 8.7%
It might be surprising that the study showed that fewer people are interested in an a la carte channel package (67.5% down from 70.9% in 2018.) Of those who said they were not interested, 30.5% said there are simply too many channels to choose from, while 26.4% said the process of choosing à la carte elements would take too long. 23.9% said they prefer their video service to choose for them based on previous viewing habits.
-French Movies Grossed $272 Million at Overseas Box Office in 2019: On par with 2018, the overseas box office revenue of French movies reached an estimated €244.4 millions ($272 million) from 40 million admissions in 2019, according to a report unveiled by UniFrance. The org said the worldwide B.O. of French movies was stable and highlighted the large representation of French films at major festivals and across leading streaming services. Italy was once again in 2019 the biggest foreign market for French movies, followed by Germany and Spain. UniFrance’s new managing director Daniela Elstner, said the B.O. of French films in North America continued to go down in 2019. Indeed, North America ranked fourth with 3.17 tickets sold, an 18% drop on 2018. The mainstream French comedy “Serial (Bad) Weddings,” which already ranks as the highest-grossing films in France in 2019, was also the most successful French movie abroad with nearly €23 million grossed worldwide. Directed by Philippe de Chauveron, the movie follows a narrow-minded Catholic couple and their three daughters, who have married men of different faiths.
-Comcast Announces Pricing, Programming, & More for NBCU’s Peacock Streaming Service: Right now, NBCUniversal is holding an investor meeting to share details about the upcoming Peacock streaming service. The service will launch to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex Customers customers on April 15th and be nationwide on July 15th 2020. “This is a very exciting time for our company, as we chart the future of entertainment,” said Steve Burke, Chairman of NBCUniversal. “We have one of the most enviable collections of media brands and the strongest ad sales track record in the business. Capitalizing on these key strengths, we are taking a unique approach to streaming that brings value to customers, advertisers and shareholders.” NBC has confirmed that there will be a free version available to all subscribers, an ad-supported tier for $4.99/month, and an ad-free tier for $9.99/month. Cox and Comcast customers will have free access to Peacock Premium with ads, which includes 15,000 hours of programming, and can pay $5 per month for the ad-free version. Peacock Free will be an ad-supported option that will provide fans everywhere with more than 7,500 hours of programming. Peacock Premium will also be an ad-supported option with 15,000 hours of programming, full seasons of original content, next day access to current seasons of returning broadcast series, early access to late night talk shows, and additional sports. Premium customers can upgrade to an ad-free experience for an additional $5.00 per month, or any customer can purchase the ad-free experience directly for $9.99 per month.
-Disney Drops Fox Name, Will Rebrand as 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures: The mouse has officially killed the fox. In a move at once unsurprising and highly symbolic, the Walt Disney Company is dropping the “Fox” brand from the 21st Century Fox assets it acquired last March, Variety has learned. The 20th Century Fox film studio will become 20th Century Studios, and Fox Searchlight Pictures will become simply Searchlight Pictures. On the TV side, however, no final decisions have been made about adjusting the monikers of production units 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios. Discussions about a possible name change are underway, but no consensus has emerged, according to a source close to the situation. Disney has already started the process to phase out the Fox name: Email addresses have changed for Searchlight staffers, with the fox.com address replaced with a searchlightpictures.com address. On the poster for Searchlight’s next film “Downhill,” with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell, the credits begin with “Searchlight Pictures Presents.” The film will be the first Searchlight release to debut with the new logo. “Call of the Wild,” an upcoming family film, will be released under the 20th Century banner, sans Fox.
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/disney-dropping-fox-20th-century-studios-1203470349/
-Trusona raises $20 million to bring passwordless authentication to more businesses: Trusona, a security and authentication platform that helps businesses verify logins without relying on passwords, has raised $20 million in a round of funding led by Georgian Partners, with participation from Microsoft’s M12, Kleiner Perkins, OurCrowd, Seven Peaks Ventures, and Akamai. Poor password hygiene is a major driving force behind identity theft and security breaches — particularly in businesses, where 81% of all breaches are said to be due to compromised passwords. The underlying problem is that people are not that great at remembering lots of passwords so they often reuse the same password across multiple online services or use a really easy-to-guess password. Sometimes both.
Trusona, a security and authentication platform that helps businesses verify logins without relying on passwords, has raised $20 million in a round of funding led by Georgian Partners, with participation from Microsoft’s M12, Kleiner Perkins, OurCrowd, Seven Peaks Ventures, and Akamai. Founded in 2015, Scottsdale, Arizona-based Trusona provides organizations with the tools to verify their employees or customers more securely, without having to rely on passwords. This may involve biometrics, QR codes, document scanning, and more. Given that more people have become accustomed to frictionless sign-up and login flows with all the big mobile app providers, anything less can come across as a subpar experience. What Trusona offers via a software development kit (SDK) is the opportunity for any developer to integrate the experience customers are coming to expect into their own app.
-Exclusive: Belgian Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah Talk ‘Bad Boys For Life’: Coming out this week from Sony Pictures is the highly-anticipated action-comedy threequel, Bad Boys for Life, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as they reprise their roles as Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett respectively. The new installment centers on the Miami PD and its elite AMMO team’s attempt to take down Armando Armas, head of a drug cartel. Armando is a cold-blooded killer with a vicious, taunting nature. He is committed to the work of the cartel and is dispatched by his mother to kill Mike Lowery. Paola Nu?ez will take on the role of Rita, the tough and funny criminal psychologist who is the newly appointed head of AMMO and Mike’s former girlfriend… the one who got away.
-AT&T TV NOW Has Improved Their DVR, Changed Their Channel Lineup & More: Here’s Our 2020 Guide to AT&T TV NOW: AT&T has been preparing for the nationwide launch of AT&T TV and the launch of HBO Max this spring. In the meantime, the company has been making some changes on AT&T TV NOW. Here’s our updated guide for this streaming service, to help you decide if it’s the right option for you. What is AT&T TV NOW? This is AT&T’s streaming service, previously called DIRECTV NOW. After the name change, the channel lineup and features stayed the same for the most part. This is still AT&T’s option for streaming live and on-demand content anytime and anywhere. Plans and Pricing There are several plans available, but two that AT&T promotes on the main page of the AT&T TV NOW website. Those are the PLUS package for $65/month and the MAX package for $80/month. How to Watch AT&T TV NOW is available on the following devices:
? Apple TV
? Fire TV
? Chromecast
? LG Smart TV
? Apple Devices
? Android Devices
? Chrome
? Safari
Where is Roku? Roku is noticeably missing from the device support list. On January 1, AT&T TV NOW ended support for Roku players and Roku TVs as the contract between the two ended. AT&T has said that they hope to find a resolution soon and bring support for Roku back.