AT&T DirecTV Now Service Gets off to a Rocky Start
DirecTV Now, AT&T's new online streaming service, got off to a somewhat rocky start.
People trying to sign up for DirecTV Now's free trial, which was launched yesterday, initially weren't able to set up an account. (I had the same problem this morning, though I did eventually succeed.) Others complained about buffering issues and trouble watching shows.
Another common complaint on Twitter came from those who received an "error 60" message that prevented them from streaming. This message indicated that that they were trying to stream content on more than two devices, even though they were using just one.
When asked for a comment, AT&T said in an email, "We experienced an issue last night that prevented some customers from streaming. Engineers resolved the issue and we haven’t experienced it since."
A quick check on social media showed that there were far fewer complaints by late morning. Here's a sampling of what people were saying on Twitter last night and early this morning—before the company said the problem was fixed:
Earlier this week, we wrote that DirecTV Now isn't likely to be a game changer for most cord-cutters, especially those with families. The two-stream limit per subscriber is one reason for that.
The service will initially cost $35 per month for a promotional package featuring 100 or so channels.
Streaming Reliability
The problems consumers experienced during the DirecTV Now launch underscore a major consideration for those thinking of cutting ties to traditional television: The service from the potential replacements is not always reliable.
Most of the major streaming players, including CBS All Access, HBO Now/HBO Go, Sony PlayStation Vue, and Sling TV have had problems with their offerings.
Sling TV, for example, had a well-publicized crash during the 2015 March Madness basketball tournament. HBO suffered outages during the premiere and finale episodes of "Game of Thrones" and "True Detective." And CBS' All Access streaming service failed just as the Grammy Awards show was starting earlier this year.
So it's not surprising that DirecTV Now had a few hiccups at launch, when a large number of people flocked to the service in a relatively short period of time.
It's hard to anticipate just how well a program like that will respond before it goes live. But it's worth watching how AT&T handles consumer concerns as those traffic numbers rise.
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