Financial Reporting Changes for AT&T, Comcast 1Q19

One of the little joys -- at least one of my little joys -- of reading the earning releases of the pay TV companies is watching when the metrics change (and how precious little reporting there is of it in the trade press).

No longer U-Verse and DirecTV subscribers, they are now "Entertainment Group premium TV" subscribers

Starting with this quarter, AT&T decided not to report separately the number of DirecTV and U-Verse video subscribers, despite the fact that the platforms are entirely different in terms of technology, programming, relationship to a broadband service, ARPU, and just about everything else. It did report that it lost 544,000 "premium TV" subscribers, but did not feel a need to break those out between the platforms, both of which have long operating histories. It did feel a need to provide that detail for its DirecTV Now business (lost 83,000 subscribers), although its ARPU is lower, its operating history is much shorter period, and its results are much more erratic. What does this lack of information mean mean? Lack of detail usually means that the story is not good. For the curious, AT&T's earnings call shed no light on this topic. Also, premium TV is usually the term of art for another offering of the multichannel landscape, the category led by another AT&T unit, HBO.

Comcast also eliminated one of its usually-reported cable video metrics this quarter. Alone among cable operators, Comcast reported "Advanced Services Customers" -- customers which had either an HD set-top box or a DVR or both. At least, Comcast had reported this number, which represented 70.4% of video subscribers at year end 2018. For 1Q19, this number is gone. Unlike the AT&T story, the Comcast change more likely highlights that the concept that HD is an "advanced service" is, to be kind, a little outdated and with the likes of YouTube TV bundling a somewhat-constrained DVR in its base consumer offering, a Comcast DVR is looking a lot less "advanced" than it once was.

DirecTV Now Renames DirecTV's DBS Packages

Unnoticed in the hubbub over its debut yesterday, DirecTV Now, the new over-the-top video service from AT&T, shares its basic packaging scheme with DirecTV's core DBS service.

• "Live a Little" is based on Entertainment
• "Just Right" is based on Choice
• "Go Big" is based on Xtra
• "Gotta Have It!" is based on Ultimate (apparently only spending $70 per month warrants an exclamation point)

Original marketing piece for DirecTV Now did not include many channels

There are some exceptions as noted in white (Crime & Investigation and FX Movie Channel do not appear to be in any DirecTV DBS packages) or blueberry (in the case of FXX, which is in the DirecTV DBS package "Xtra", not "Entertainment" as one would have expected) or light blue (in the case of Justice Central which is in the DBS package "Choice"). Source for the channel lineup list was Todd Spangler's article in Variety. The prices at the top of this chart are the expected retail; as per the marketing piece above, there is a $35 introductory rate for "Go Big" for the first 3 months.

There are some channels in DirecTV's DBS packages that are not in the corresponding DirecTV Now package. Among the more conspicuous absences: Aspire, INSP, ION, Mav TV, Ovation, Reelz, and the shopping services like QVC and HSN. All are independent programmers.

[Many of the channels are public interest channels, which DirecTV is required to provide space for on DBS by law (there is no similar law for over-the-top). Examples of public interest channels are BYU TV, Free Speech TV, and NASA TV; they are all non-commercial services.]

One note on the apparent loss-leader nature of parts of the offer: Prepaying $105 (3 months of Go Big at the $35 introductory rate and getting a free $150 Apple TV) is a good deal even if you don't want DirecTV Now. $105 is even less than the $129 that Apple charges for a refurbished unit.

Another take: Peter Kafka at Recode sees this is as "a national competitor" to the "regional fiefdoms" of cable operators with "more to come".

Another take: Todd Spangler at Variety quotes analysts saying DirecTV Now's most attractive package is a money loser. Earlier he wrote about skinny bundles potentially killing to pay TV ecosystem, back when he thought DirecTV Now was a skinny bundle.