AT&T’s foray into entertainment has been culturally similar to that of its drunken swagger into home automation and security with Digital Life.
Move into a new industry and try to play bullyball with the competition. Established competition offering better service at cheaper prices. The customer push back is overt. DTV was bleeding when T bought it, all trends pointed to the continuation of that, but T bought it anyway. None of the company’s choices in the last two years are being applauded by anyone who isn’t getting money from T and behind closed doors, you’d have to go pretty high up the ladder of a-- kissery to find anyone who actually believes half the stuff T tries to sell. “Viacom’s channels don’t matter!” Yeah, because DTV is losing them, a narrative like all others from T that adjusts to match the end result, the hallmark of an inept captain or a rudderless ship. The advert model is corny as hell. T doesn’t understand youth purchasing patterns or habits which means brand equity is taking a long term irrevocable hit. A lot of younger people in affluent and tech savvy areas know T shovels the same cow pucky that Comcast does.
So T goes into these new industries swinging its Ma Bell dong as if its the major player because “heh same thing works in mobility,” yet it never stops to consider that the target audience in mobility is captive. They have very few choices. Thats not the case in home security and also not in entertainment. This is made evident by the way T responds to critics of its process by essentially throwing skat and saying “BUT WE HAVE GAME OF FRONES!!!!!!!!!!” Which will matter for what, 6 weeks longer and then be gone. They think the spin offs will work, they won’t, and they think youths want HBO with a feverish passion, they don’t.
There is no one at T, there is no point in the process where integrity and brutal (sometimes painful) honesty is utilized. Its simply not in the DNA. Its used cars and the masquerade that because T has piles of money its not used cars and its being done right. The final piece is ignoring the fact that a public utility as basic as phones provides endless money because of the oligarical environment in which that industry operates. The same isn’t the same for entertainment. Think it’s bad now? Wait until Disney+ and Apple step up and stomp a mudhole in T’s arse, it’s going to be brutal. The entertainment industry is changing and T responds by introuducing the most loathed aspects of cable to the streaming product and acting like people can’t just go somewhere else.