AT&T TV service to offer Dish Network, Akimbo
April 21st, 2006A television service from AT&T will offer video downloads from Akimbo along with Dish Network programming, the telecom giant announced this week.
Movielink downloads and DSL service will also be part of AT&T Homezone, set to launch in 13 states by late summer. The bundled offering gives the telephone company a foothold in home-delivered television and IPTV until it can push forward with its Lightspeed fiber-optic TV network in the years to come.
Last summer, when Akimbo’s video library had just 2,000 titles, David Pogue of the New York Times called it “puny and overpriced.” Akimbo now offers 10,000 older movies and TV shows, downloadable from the Internet through the same set-top box that delivers Dish Network and Movielink selections. The box, made by 2Wire, includes a DVR.
OK, so AT&T gets practice at providing subscription TV. That’s the apparent purpose of this exercise. But what about me-the-viewer (you do remember who this is about, don’t you)—what do I gain from this multiplication of middlemen?
Let’s see: Fewer boxes, a single bill. I guess that’s worth…something.
Meanwhile, as telecom firms spend billions to build television-delivery networks, analysts discount their competitive threat:
Significant competition from phone giants AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. could take longer to emerge than initially anticipated as they roll out TV services slowly, analysts said.
• Links: San Jose Mercury News; Washington Post