{"id":337689,"date":"2017-04-05T23:37:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T15:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1473111"},"modified":"2017-04-05T23:37:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T15:37:12","slug":"atts-unlimited-plus-wireless-plan-now-includes-free-hbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/atts-unlimited-plus-wireless-plan-now-includes-free-hbo\/","title":{"rendered":"AT&T\u2019s Unlimited Plus wireless plan now includes free HBO"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

AT&T\u2019s $85.4 billion acquisition<\/a> of Time Warner hasn\u2019t yet completed, but the company is already leveraging Time Warner assets to boost its own services \u2013 first with its streaming TV service DirecTV Now, which is currently giving out free HBO,<\/a>\u00a0and now today it\u2019s rolling out free HBO to AT&T\u2019s \u201cUnlimited Plus\u201d wireless plan<\/a> subscribers. The channel will be offered to both AT&T video subscribers and wireless-only customers, AT&T says.<\/p>\n

For any Unlimited Plus wireless customer who also subscribes to one of AT&T\u2019s video services, including DirecTV Now, DirecTV, or U-verse, the channel will be offered for free through the service they already use. If they had previously signed up for HBO, they\u2019ll no longer have to pay for it. And if they didn\u2019t, it will become free.<\/p>\n

This goes beyond the \u201cfree HBO\u201d that DirecTV Now was touting\u00a0earlier, as that was\u00a0meant to be a limited-time promotion<\/a> that would expire after a year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the first time that AT&T used HBO to attract customers. Before, AT&T\u00a0had launched DirecTV Now with an offer of HBO for only $5 extra per month \u2013 well under the price for the streaming service HBO NOW, or the add-on available on rival streaming services, like Sling TV.<\/p>\n

Along with the launch of free HBO, AT&T is also incentivizing customers to sign up for its video services by offering a $25 monthly video credit towards DirecTV, internet-only DirecTV Now, or U-verse. This credit remains as long as the customers are on the Unlimited Plus wireless plan.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t have to subscribe to an AT&T video service to take advantage of the free HBO, AT&T says (though clearly it would like you to do so.) If you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll instead be able to log in to either the DirecTV Now or HBO GO app to watch the HBO content.<\/p>\n

DirecTV Now users get three HBO channels (HBO, HBO East, and HBO Family), while DirecTV customers get 10 (East and West coast feeds of HBO, HBO2, HBO Family, as well as HBO Comedy, Latino, Signature, Zone, and On Demand). U-verse customers gain 14 channels.<\/p>\n

The Unlimited Plus plan itself includes unlimited data, talk and text, plus 10 GB of Wi-Fi tethering per phone, with speeds that slow after 22 GB of data usage per line.<\/p>\n

Streaming HBO doesn\u2019t count against the data cap, a practice known as zero rating.<\/p>\n

Zero-rated video services is something rival T-Mobile is also doing, through its Binge On service,<\/a> which also includes HBO NOW, and most other\u00a0top video services like Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, Sling TV, Hulu, WatchESPN and more.<\/p>\n

Under the Obama administration, the FCC was concerned about zero rating<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0especially AT&T\u2019s plans to zero rate DirecTV Now and Verizon\u2019s zero rating of go90 [disclosure: Verizon owns TechCrunch parent AOL] \u2013 which it felt could give the companies an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n

But under the Trump administration, probes into zero rating were killed off, as new FCC chairman said<\/a> the organization\u2019s focus would no longer be on \u201cdenying Americans free data.\u201d<\/p>\n

We should also note that free\u00a0HBO via AT&T\u2019s wireless plan isn\u2019t a promotion for new customers \u2013 it will apply to existing subscribers, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner hasn’t yet completed, but the company is already leveraging Time Warner assets to boost its own services – first with its streaming TV service DirecTV Now, which is currently giving out free HBO,\u00a0and now today it’s rolling out free HBO to AT&T’s “Unlimited Plus” wireless plan subscribers. The… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-337689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}