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Class-Action Lawsuit Accuses AT&T of Lying To Customers About DirecTV Now (kctv5.com)
A massive class-action lawsuit is accusing AT&T of lying to customers about DirecTV Now when it bought Time Warner. KCTV5 reprots: At the time, they promised customers and investors, they would be cutting prices for their streaming service called DirecTV Now. However, the lawsuit accuses the company of switching up TV packages, confusing customers by getting rid of the bundles it had been offering, charging higher prices for new types of bundles, and then bringing back the original bundles at a higher price. Investors were not happy about this because stock prices tanked. DirecTV Now was hemorrhaging customers, losing about 260,000 customers in December. "AT&T's registration statement 'touted yearly and quarterly growth trends... including quarterly subscriber gains in its DirecTV Now service sufficient to offset any decrease in traditional satellite DirecTV subscribers, such that AT&T was experiencing an ongoing trend of total video subscriber 'net additions,'" reports Ars Technica, citing a segment of the complaint.
"But in reality, 'DirecTV Now subscribers were leaving (i.e., not renewing) as soon as their promotional discount periods expired, while at the same time new potential DirecTV Now customers were unwilling to pay the higher prices and therefore not subscribing at all,' the complaint said. By the time AT&T bought Time Warner, 'AT&T's reported 'net additions' growth trend was already reversing into a severe 'net loss.' [T]he AT&T registration statement 'purported to warn of numerous risks that 'if' occurring 'may' or 'could' adversely affect the company while failing to disclose that these 'risks' had already materialized at the time of the acquisition,' the complaint said."
"But in reality, 'DirecTV Now subscribers were leaving (i.e., not renewing) as soon as their promotional discount periods expired, while at the same time new potential DirecTV Now customers were unwilling to pay the higher prices and therefore not subscribing at all,' the complaint said. By the time AT&T bought Time Warner, 'AT&T's reported 'net additions' growth trend was already reversing into a severe 'net loss.' [T]he AT&T registration statement 'purported to warn of numerous risks that 'if' occurring 'may' or 'could' adversely affect the company while failing to disclose that these 'risks' had already materialized at the time of the acquisition,' the complaint said."
These mergers are always sold as "synergy, better service for less cost". They always turn out to be "Less competition, higher prices, folks out of jobs".
Only the lawyers get rich. And the companies don't pay enough to hurt them.
Corporatism != Free Market
I had this offer for DirecTV for $35/month for 3 months and a free 4K appleTV. Used it twice. Once to get my $160 appleTV for $105. The second to get another one and sell it for $120. Basically never used the service itself which was COMPLETELY USELESS. Most channels had GARBAGE and you could not skip the commercials (if you came back to the channel after surfing away, you got hit by the commercial again... ah, the beauty of streaming). So it is Netflix, Tubi or TPB for me and that's it. (But I have been considering subscription for Mubi... seems an interesting idea.)
As one of those people that abandoned Directv Now after my promotional expired, all I can say is good riddance. The DVR service was horrible, 20 hours or 30 days I think, and they only allowed 2 streams. Three if you where willing to pitch in a extra $5. Then they where going to raise the price $5 for the package I had. I kicked cable to the curb for that bullshit.
PSvue is superior to directvnow but doesn't have the history channel. Which is why I left it and went with directv now. But I've found that, for me, nether directv now or psvue are worth $50+ a month. I found that Philo, $14 a month has everything my family wants and is pretty cheap.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
It is cloud based dvr, but yes you can skip commercials on on the dvr.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.