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http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/01/medi...net/index.html



AT&T is going "over the top" with television.



In the fourth quarter of this year, AT&T will start selling cable-like bundles of TV to people across the country through a new app. Subscribers won't need an AT&T wireless phone or an AT&T broadband connection at home.

It'll be like Netflix -- download the app, sign up, type in a credit card number, and start streaming a TV show.



The "DirecTV Now" bundle will be oriented toward live scheduled programming, the same way existing TV on-screen guides work.



But one of the other bundles, "DirecTV Mobile," will be oriented toward on-demand programming, more like Netflix and Hulu, which is a big shift for the industry. This lower-cost plan will be just for smart phones, while "DirecTV Now" will work on big-screen TVs too.



A third offering, "DirecTV Preview," won't require a monthly subscription at all. It will be a free app with a smaller selection of shows, perhaps intended to persuade people to pay for the bigger bundles.

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