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DirecTV will launch its streaming service before the end of the year

DirecTV will launch its streaming service before the end of the year

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DirecTV's upcoming streaming service will launch before the end of the year with "very, very aggressive price points," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said at an investor conference today, according to CNET. The company is planning on releasing DirecTV Now, its over-the-top service which will feature over 100 premium channels, once it wraps up the remaining content deals. Stephenson said deals with Disney and HBO are already complete.

AT&T is targeting the 20 million households in the US that don't have cable, and it's hoping that DirecTV Now, which was announced back in March, will give the company some kind of foothold with cord cutters. Stephenson said the app will allow customers to use two streams per household, although he said AT&T does have the ability to charge more for additional streams, according to CNET.

Stephenson admitted that the service could threaten its standard DirecTV service, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. "If you don't see them threatening your legacy products, 99 percent of the time they don't go anywhere," Stephenson said. It'll be interesting to see how DirecTV compares against the incumbent cord-cutting services like Sling TV. The de facto holy grail for cord-cutting services is being able to offer the big four networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox), along with ESPN and HBO. If DirecTV Now can deliver that at a decent price, it may have a winner on its hands.