U-verse Counters Netflix With Movie VOD Package

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

From the article in the link below:

AT&T is launching U-verse Screen Pack, a $5 monthly subscription video-on-demand for watching unlimited movies on TV and other devices, aiming to provide an alternative to Netflix, Redbox Instant by Verizon and other over-the-top video services.

The telco also introduced two new U-verse TV apps, available for no extra charge: PacketVideo’s Twonky Beam for accessing personal videos on TV, and Pix & Flix for viewing photos.

U-verse TV Screen Pack customers will get unlimited playback of movies on U-verse TV, Uverse.com and on the U-verse app for tablets and smartphones.

At launch, the AT&T U-verse Screen Pack will include movies from major studios, with more titles added on an ongoing basis. The telco did not provide examples of titles available through the service.

“Our customers have told us they want subscription on demand services and we’re delivering,” Jeff Weber, AT&T Home Solutions president of content and advertising sales, said in a statement. “Screen Pack, along with our On Demand library, gives customers a flexible and more compelling movie experience, where and when they want it.”  

Screen Pack content is available on U-verse TV, at uverse.com, or in the U-verse apps for compatible smartphones and tablets.

AT&T is offering U-verse TV customers a free preview of Screen Pack between Jan. 7 and 13; customers can order Screen Pack on U-verse TV channel 9910. More info on the U-verse Screen Pack is available atwww.att.com/screenpack.

Meanwhile, PacketVideo’s Twonky Beam app lets users send video clips from compatible smartphones the TV with the swipe of their finger.

Pix & Flix, created in the AT&T Labs, lets subscribers view photos stored on mobile devices on TV. The app also can connect to Facebook to view photos associated with an account on TV screens.

“These apps make it easier than ever to share your favorite photos and videos on a screen that’s easy for everyone to gather around and watch,” Weber said. “We’re excited to work with more developers to deliver more second-screen apps to customers.”

U-verse TV customers can connect their apps to any set-top in the home through channel 9301, with no special equipment required.

As of the end of September, AT&T had 4.34 million U-verse TV subscribers nationwide.

http://www.multichannel.com/telco-tv/u-verse-counters-netflix-movie-vod-package/141053

[bjohnson33]

Anyone who thinks that Screen Pack counters Netflix has not yet scrolled through the titles available.  I find it interesting that companies now think we'll pay to watch anything via mobile devices.

[americangame ACE - Warrior]

I went through the package avaliable on the iPad. Very meh in terms of what is being offered.

[oufanindallas]

According to the article it's available via UVerse TV, UVerse.com as well as mobile devices.  Granted 1500 titles isn't that many, but I'm sure the number of titles will increase as the number of subscribers increase.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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oufanindallas wrote:

According to the article it's available via UVerse TV, UVerse.com as well as mobile devices.  Granted 1500 titles isn't that many, but I'm sure the number of titles will increase as the number of subscribers increase.

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I would certainly hope so!  While Netflix does not list the # of titles available via rental or streaming, I'm guessing that the streaming # is at least 8x that (I have heard the 12,000 number before)!  For just a few $ more, I can't see that UV's offering being viable at this time.  Granted I can't point my U-Verse remote at the UV box and get Netflix but I have a half a dozen other ways.

There is a free trial until Jan 13th of the Screen Pack.

Look at the info here but pay particular attention to the comments.  Three out of the four commenters, nailed it.  U-Verse VOD is paper thin.  Thank God I do not depend on VOD!

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

I wonder how much streaming content was available on Netflix when it first offered the service.

[bjohnson33]

I agree if Screen Pack could get in a time machine and travel to 1997, I bet I'd find it a very compelling product. But, my understanding is that AT&T will want me to part with my money in January 2013. With the exclusive deals that Netflix and Amazon Prime have carved up among distributors and a very competitive streaming landscape, I wouldn't expect this service to gain much traction. But perhaps I'm wrong and this big splash launch was just an appetizer for lots of quality content to come. I guess we will see.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

A lot of the comments being posted in this thread are confusing.  This is an optional service.  No one is required to subscribe to the service.  If you don't see any value in the service, don't subscribe to it.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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texasguy37 wrote:

A lot of the comments being posted in this thread are confusing.  This is an optional service.  No one is required to subscribe to the service.  If you don't see any value in the service, don't subscribe to it.

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Well you are certainly right but no one said that I could not complain about it.  Unless you are saying that I can't.... We can then fence, with our steak knives! At any rate, I would LOVE to drop $5 a month, maybe even 8 or 9 on something worthwhile, that is Netflix-esque but have you seen the lists of movies?  OMG, talk about Dogs / Dollar Tree two for a dollar DVD, type movies.  My wife got 40% through the Romances and told me to get out of it.  The documentaries look slightly better, though.  For what they have, a free for U300 and above and $3/month for others seems about right

 I WANT this service to be good.

You had asked about Netflix's streaming movie count at startup.  I had heard 8500, somewhere.

[gregzoll_1]

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bjohnson33 wrote:

Anyone who thinks that Screen Pack counters Netflix has not yet scrolled through the titles available.  I find it interesting that companies now think we'll pay to watch anything via mobile devices.

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It really is no different than the Indie & B flick offerings for Netflix & Amazon Prime.  Found some of the older stuff that was top in the theaters, if you go to top rated.  I look at it this way, that it gives us a more robust offering, when Amazon OnDemand or Netflix Ondemand bombs on you, and you happen to find the same movie in the Screen Pack offerings.

Some of the gems in the rough, are those movies that you think are bombs, when you read the info on it, but after you start watching, it turns out to be a decent diamond in the rough.

[bjohnson33]

Shouldn't be confusing.  A thread is started that suggests that a new product offering is a potential substitute for Netflix.  Others evaluate the service offering and make comparisons based on the original suggestion of the discussion.  Most don't see value in it at this time.  No one I can see suggested it is a required purchase.  As a new uverse customer, I hope this forum allows constructive criticism of certain elements of the uverse offerings without bringing pom poms to the table.  I'm beginning to understand why this forum appears to have little discussion for a 4M+ subscriber base if everyone who has a criticism is told they should have checked the line-up before switching or is labeled a puppet of comcast.  I'm relatively satisfied with the service based on early returns, but that doesn't mean there aren't elements of the programming of which I can't be critical.

[oufanindallas]

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bjohnson33 wrote:

Shouldn't be confusing.  A thread is started that suggests that a new product offering is a potential substitute for Netflix.  Others evaluate the service offering and make comparisons based on the original suggestion of the discussion.  Most don't see value in it at this time.  No one I can see suggested it is a required purchase.  As a new uverse customer, I hope this forum allows constructive criticism of certain elements of the uverse offerings without bringing pom poms to the table.  I'm beginning to understand why this forum appears to have little discussion for a 4M+ subscriber base if everyone who has a criticism is told they should have checked the line-up before switching or is labeled a puppet of comcast.  I'm relatively satisfied with the service based on early returns, but that doesn't mean there aren't elements of the programming of which I can't be critical.

---

Your first comment was one of the more confusing comment.  You mentioned about providers thinking that everyone wants to watch on mobile devices.  Well, believe it or not, other providers are offering it, people are using it, so therefore if AT&T had not offered on mobile people would have been screaming about it. The service is being offered at an additonal fee for those who choose to subscribe. Granted the library is small now, but give it time and it will grow.  Do I plan on adding it. Not at this time. I have both Netflix and Amazon Prime, and both are available on my cell phone if I choose to watch them when I'm away from my house

Constructive critisism is always welcome, but posting rants about channels that are or are not available when signing up is more on the subscriber since the channel line up is in no way hidden and if changing providers you should always check the lineup of whatever service you are thinking about changing to before making the committment.  

As for Comcast puppets, believe it or not there are those that have other services that will post in other providers threads just to bash the other providers. It happens in Comcast, TWC, Dish and Direct forums as well.  For those that have had the service for a while it's pretty obvious when someone doesn't actually have the service.

Is AT&T perfect, no. But for most folks it's a great product. Can it be improved, definately.  Are other providers passing AT&T in some areas, yes. Does that mean those that have the service and are happy are going to jump ship just because a different provider has feature A, B and C now and AT&T only has A & B, no. But, with any service, if AT&T doesn't work on improvements then they may start to see losses in customer count.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I saw the message that a service is available called Uverse Screen Pack.  There is a free preview between now and the 13th.  The message doesn't say how to access it.  Does anyone know how to get it or where it actually is?  I looked in the On Demand section but did not see it.  Never mind I found it.

[aviewer ACE - Wizard]

uverse.com has a display for screen pack with a button to preview. It seems to change with other features. I did click it & some of the offerings say screen pack.

It is there, but it just goes in circles - never plays a selection.

[oufanindallas]

On Demand, UVerse Screen Pack.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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oufanindallas wrote:

On Demand, UVerse Screen Pack.

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RC's last sentence was "never mind I found it."   

[oufanindallas]

In case anyone else has trouble finding it.

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dhascall wrote:

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oufanindallas wrote:

On Demand, UVerse Screen Pack.

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RC's last sentence was "never mind I found it."   

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[aviewer ACE - Wizard]

Rcvd e-mail this pm -

[marcindublin]

I wonder if "Screen Pack" will canibalize the already weak On Demand offerings that U-Verse provides at no additional charge with the service?

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

No

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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marcindublin wrote:

I wonder if "Screen Pack" will canibalize the already weak On Demand offerings that U-Verse provides at no additional charge with the service?

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No.  U-Verse's VOD never had a bevvy of free movies, in the first place.  Again, I don't use VOD but it is weak compared to others.  Again before the U-Verse defenders take me to task, no service is perfect.....

If free movies (beyond what is included with your premium channels (if any)) are what you seek, there are many ways of getting them online, such as Crackle and Hulu.  Phil (hpmsrm) hooks his laptop to his TV.  Not quite as easy as pressing the VOD button on your remote but Crackle instantly showed a better selection, IMHO, than Screen Pack.

[tceperry]

GREAT!!!  The only problem is.......I wouldn't need Netflix or Amazon if you actually had movies that I want to see.  I have U-450, and between Live and On Demand, still can't find anything I want to watch.  I went through the movie list - I wouldn't use it if it was free. 

Apparently you don't understand why people use the streaming services.  It isn't because we want instant gratification.  It's because we want WHAT WE WANT instantly.  Your "instant" sales will not go up if you continue to offer a "$5 instant kale and brussel sprout smoothie" - the equivalent of your movie listings!

I pay a huge amount of money for my bandwidth (up to 26 Mbps).  I average about 19 Mbps and now it seems that my movie watching is being throttled (down to 2.5 Mbps).  I only use Netflix or Amazon once in a blue moon! 

In the areas with U-Verse, we have other options.  Choking the people who pay your bills will result in less people to pay your bills.

[oufanindallas]

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tceperry wrote:

GREAT!!!  The only problem is.......I wouldn't need Netflix or Amazon if you actually had movies that I want to see.  I have U-450, and between Live and On Demand, still can't find anything I want to watch.  I went through the movie list - I wouldn't use it if it was free. 

Apparently you don't understand why people use the streaming services.  It isn't because we want instant gratification.  It's because we want WHAT WE WANT instantly.  Your "instant" sales will not go up if you continue to offer a "$5 instant kale and brussel sprout smoothie" - the equivalent of your movie listings!

I pay a huge amount of money for my bandwidth (up to 26 Mbps).  I average about 19 Mbps and now it seems that my movie watching is being throttled (down to 2.5 Mbps).  I only use Netflix or Amazon once in a blue moon! 

In the areas with U-Verse, we have other options.  Choking the people who pay your bills will result in less people to pay your bills.

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No one is forcing you to subscibe to the Screen Pack. If you don't want to use it, don't.  I have both Netflix and Amazon Prime and their services don't provide everything I wish we could have, but for the small fee I pay, i'm not going to complain. My son uses Netflix more than anyone in my house for his childrens shows.  I have two tvs with wireless ROKU devices and neither one has an issue streaming.  As for the content of live TV, you cannot possibly think that it's AT&T's fault? It's the stations that provide the content, not AT&T.  I know the few times I've been home sick or home with a sick kid I feel that with 400+ stations there still is nothing that I want to watch on TV.  Do I fault AT&T for that, no. 

[tceperry]

Well oufanindallas,  I have had U-Verse for over 7 years.  I really like it as a whole, but there are some very "Microshaftesque" things about it (meaning - they know what is best for us even though we want something different).  Here are a few of my favorites:

• The inability to bypass the "8 hour and go to blue screen" on the set boxes. 
• Only allowing full mobile extended content to those on AT&T wireless plans, even though we have already paid for it.
• Offering On-Demand videos for a rental fee, when they all come from the services that I already pay extra for.
• Throttling streaming video (on the top speed plan) so that we will be softer to the idea of paying extra for movies that wouldn't even be shown on TMC or Flix

When I first got U-Verse, I felt that the new AT&T was trying very much to be like the old Ma Bell in terms of service and attentiveness to the customer.  It is what really kept me with them.  It seems now, though, that the good service I still get is not really making up for the growing list of inattentiveness.

You are not helping AT&T with the tone and content of your posts here.  Placations and excuses are not wanted. Lend a sympathetic ear, rather than a pathetic one.  Stop talking about the competition.  As a business owner, I know that if I give more and better to my customer than my competition, I don't need to bash them.  I listen to what my customers need and want.  I show I care about them.  Stop worrying about Trolls and start being the best.  That is all I ask from myself, my employees and my vendors. 

[oufanindallas]

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tceperry wrote:

Well oufanindallas,  I have had U-Verse for over 7 years.  I really like it as a whole, but there are some very "Microshaftesque" things about it (meaning - they know what is best for us even though we want something different).  Here are a few of my favorites:

• The inability to bypass the "8 hour and go to blue screen" on the set boxes. 
• Only allowing full mobile extended content to those on AT&T wireless plans, even though we have already paid for it.
• Offering On-Demand videos for a rental fee, when they all come from the services that I already pay extra for.
• Throttling streaming video (on the top speed plan) so that we will be softer to the idea of paying extra for movies that wouldn't even be shown on TMC or Flix

When I first got U-Verse, I felt that the new AT&T was trying very much to be like the old Ma Bell in terms of service and attentiveness to the customer.  It is what really kept me with them.  It seems now, though, that the good service I still get is not really making up for the growing list of inattentiveness.

You are not helping AT&T with the tone and content of your posts here.  Placations and excuses are not wanted. Lend a sympathetic ear, rather than a pathetic one.  Stop talking about the competition.  As a business owner, I know that if I give more and better to my customer than my competition, I don't need to bash them.  I listen to what my customers need and want.  I show I care about them.  Stop worrying about Trolls and start being the best.  That is all I ask from myself, my employees and my vendors. 

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I cannot speak to the first of your bullets regarding the 8hr sleep mode, I can tell you when I had Dish and Direct, they both did the same thing.

Your 2nd bullet point. I have slingbox so it doesn't really phase me since I do not care to have AT&T wireless.

As for the 3rd, ALL providers will offer new releases for a rental fee until the movie goes to cable so griping to AT&T about that is a moot point. You don't want to have to pay for it, gripe at the studios, but I seriously doubt they are going to give up extra income on new releases.

As for throttling, I've not had any issue with throttling on any of my wireless devices, I'm able to watch Netflix and Amazon Prime on both Roku, my Droid phone and my PC which is also wireless with no stuttering or lag time.

I do not work for AT&T, I'm just a customer like you.  Is the service perfect, no, but it's the better of the options I have available. I wouldn't go back to Dish or Direct if they paid me so those are out of the question.  I would however like to see Dish's Hopper with Slingbox capability to be added to UVerse, but I don't know if we'd ever see that or not.

[americangame ACE - Warrior]

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Etcetera wrote:

Well fundamentals,  I have had U-Verse for over 7 years.  I really like it as a whole, but there are some very "Micrometeorites" things about it (meaning - they know what is best for us even though we want something different).  Here are a few of my favorites:

• The inability to bypass the "8 hour and go to blue screen" on the set boxes. 
• Only allowing full mobile extended content to those on AT&T wireless plans, even though we have already paid for it.
• Offering On-Demand videos for a rental fee, when they all come from the services that I already pay extra for.
• Throttling streaming video (on the top speed plan) so that we will be softer to the idea of paying extra for movies that wouldn't even be shown on TM or Felix

When I first got U-Verse, I felt that the new AT&T was trying very much to be like the old Ma Bell in terms of service and attentiveness to the customer.  It is what really kept me with them.  It seems now, though, that the good service I still get is not really making up for the growing list of inattentiveness.

You are not helping AT&T with the tone and content of your posts here.  Applications and excuses are not wanted. Lend a gymspathetic ear, rather than a pathetic one.  Stop talking about the competition.  As a business owner, I know that if I give more and better to my customer than my competition, I don't need to bash them.  I listen to what my customers need and want.  I show I care about them.  Stop worrying about Trolls and start being the best.  That is all I ask from myself, my employees and my vendors. 

---

Before I start..U Fan nor any of us ACEs are employees of AT&T. We're customers just like you. (Steak Knives!)

1. The STB only idles if you haven't interacted with it for over 8 hours. If you change the channel or even just press the "OK" button then the timer resets. If you haven't interacted with your TV in over 8 hours, odds are very good that for a decent portion of that time you weren't in front of it watching anything.

2. The mobile TV offered though AT&T Wireless isn't the same as U-Verse TV and is charged separately from U-Verse TV. Recently AT&T renamed the mobile TV service to stop the confusion and to differentiate the two products.

3. Welcome to the world of contracts. Content providers agreed to offer AT&T U-Verse with select offerings for their on demand service for a price while others offer it for free. AT&T has no real say on what costs money and what doesn't.

4. Citation? Other than some people popping up on here saying YouTube is being throttled, I haven't ever heard about AT&T throttling online streaming services. My personal use of Netflix and Amazon VOD via several devices (Xbox, PC, PS3, iPad, etc.) also state that they are not throttling those services.

[pacman_85]

Back to his original point of the AT&T Screen Pack offerings sucking.  I looked at the selection when there was the free preview and they do suck.  Why would I want to pay AT&T an extra $5 per month for such a horrible selection of movies?  Well, I don't.  And while I am sure Netflix had pretty poor offerings out of the gate when they first started their streaming service it was okay as it was the first of its kind.  There was nothing to compare its horrible selection to.  Now that there are other, already established options out there, AT&T should have waited until they could make more deals with the studios so they could have something worthwhile to offer on this service before going live with it.  This isn't some mom and pop shop starting up a new business with limited money to pay the studios we are talking about here.  It's freaking AT&T.  By the time they add new content will it be too late?  Will this service have already fallen off the map and buried in the back of everyone's minds?

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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pacman_85 wrote:

Back to his original point of the AT&T Screen Pack offerings sucking.  I looked at the selection when there was the free preview and they do suck.  Why would I want to pay AT&T an extra $5 per month for such a horrible selection of movies?  Well, I don't.  And while I am sure Netflix had pretty poor offerings out of the gate when they first started their streaming service it was okay as it was the first of its kind.  There was nothing to compare its horrible selection to.  Now that there are other, already established options out there, AT&T should have waited until they could make more deals with the studios so they could have something worthwhile to offer on this service before going live with it.  This isn't some mom and pop shop starting up a new business with limited money to pay the studios we are talking about here.  It's freaking AT&T.  By the time they add new content will it be too late?  Will this service have already fallen off the map and buried in the back of everyone's minds?

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Yep, yep.  $5 a year is too much for Screen Pack.  The entire trying to copy the look of Netflix is silly, if they can't compete with the content.  Shoot, even my local Library has their eBooks arranged just like the Netflix onDemand GUI.