Some of this was discussed in the Olympics 2020 Qualifying thread but I figured I'd start a different thread since the conversation really has nothing to do with Olympics qualifiers. It looks like DTV has finally got around to pulling 16:9 feeds from multiple stations that would be of interest to people who frequent this forum: NTEL (Colombian football), Peru Magico (Peruvian football) and TyC (Argentine football). TyC includes HD listings in the on-screen guide, but this is not accurate. The Independiente-Rosario Central match on TyC has clear graphics but the picture certainly isn't HD. I would be nice if DTV would at least make GolTV HD again but all of these channels would be much better in HD. I get resources are limited but does Eleven Sports really need to be HD for its collection of e-sports programming? It seems that the target market for that channel is not people who watch traditional TV (satellite/cable > physical TV). The target market would seem to be people who watch on their laptops or phones.
DIRECTV satellites are dead technology, there's no reason to spend any more money on it from AT&T's perspective.
When I first switched to U-verse for my internet, the tech who installed everything told me that ATT bought DTV because ATT was losing customers and fielding too many complaints about speeds. If someone was streaming U-Verse TV and trying to do something that required fast internet, there was no way to do both. It's interesting that they have continued to shift away from satellite to things like DTVNow, which just puts them back in that original bind. The big problem IMHO is that the costs keep going up because they are unwilling to move to an a la carte model. Let people pay for what they want and then pay out to the networks based on subs to the networks' programming. Kind of an FS+ model. I say all of that but I keep subscribing. But perhaps that will end this year, as my bills keep going up and I could probably cobble together my sports needs and the family's entertainment needs in other ways.
I think satellite is going to around for a long time, some rural areas don't have fast internet, even in large cities internet can be a problem because unlimited plans can be expensive. AT&T might kill DirecTV but other companies will pick up the slack.
Yes, it's true that U-Verse TV channels do take internet speeds. However, I'm on a 100 Mbps fiber connection and record 2-3 shows at a time and still can run a speed test showing 120 Mbps which is more than enough. I've never really noticed a slowdown outside whatever various technical glitch that any provider would be susceptible to getting. The channel owners would never allow ala carte. Even the newer streaming providers still force someone to get *all* the ESPN shows, for example. Also, if fewer people would pay directly for a specific channel, costs per channel would skyrocket. Instead of paying $1.19 or $3.45 per channel, costs may be $6 or even $11 per channel. All of a sudden, you're back to where you started, but getting far less content. As far as DirecTV satellites, their last one launched. AT&T is launching a new service which uses Android-based boxes to stream channels via the internet. Once this service launches in a particular area, U-Verse will no longer be offered. A U-Verse customer will be allowed to keep that service, but new signups won't happen. Equipment will be mailed to the customer for self-install. AFAIK, their long-term plan is this new service, a skinny bundle with no AT&T equipment (Roku, AppleTV or similar will be needed) and DirecTV until it shuts down as those satellites die off.