Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

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Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by tvroadmin » Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:11 pm

Lawsuit: AT&T’s DirecTV Now is a flop and AT&T lied to investors about it
AT&T failed to disclose DirecTV Now subscriber losses, class action claims.
JON BRODKIN - 4/5/2019, 4:30 PM



AT&T lied to investors in order to hide the failure of its DirecTV Now streaming TV service, a proposed class action alleges.

AT&T told investors that DirecTV Now was succeeding even as its subscriber base fell due to price increases and the discontinuance of promotional discounts, said the complaint filed Monday in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint accuses AT&T and executives including CEO Randall Stephenson of violating the US Securities Act by "knowingly or recklessly" making false statements to investors and failing to disclose problems that were affecting DirecTV Now sales.

Via quarterly and annual reports, SEC filings, press releases, and other statements and documents, AT&T and its executives made statements "to securities analysts and the media that were designed to influence the market for AT&T securities," even though these statements "were materially false and misleading in that they failed to disclose material adverse information and misrepresented the truth about AT&T’s finances and business prospects," the complaint said.

In June 2018, when AT&T bought Time Warner Inc., Time Warner shareholders' stock was converted into AT&T stock. AT&T issued the shares pursuant to a registration statement that it had previously filed with the SEC, and this registration statement "touted false and misleading financial results, trends, and metrics and omitted material facts rendering those financial results, trends, and metrics materially misleading," the complaint said. The registration statement consisted of documents filed between November 2016 and January 2017.

"Defendants conducted the acquisition with the registration statement containing untrue statements of material fact and omitting material facts both required by governing regulations and necessary to make the statements made not misleading," the complaint said.

DirecTV Now is the online-only version of DirecTV, delivered without a satellite hookup. AT&T had 1.6 million DirecTV Now subscribers as of December 31, 2018 after losing 267,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, an AT&T earnings report said. AT&T said that many subscribers on heavily discounted plans didn't keep the service when they had to pay full price.

For the full year of 2018, DirecTV Now gained 436,000 subscribers but the satellite version of DirecTV lost 1.2 million subscribers, according to Leichtman Research Group.

Risks must be disclosed

AT&T's registration statement "touted yearly and quarterly growth trends... including quarterly subscriber gains in its DirecTV Now service sufficient to offset any decrease in traditional satellite DirecTV subscribers, such that AT&T was experiencing an ongoing trend of total video subscriber 'net additions,'" the complaint said.

But in reality, "DirecTV Now subscribers were leaving (i.e., not renewing) as soon as their promotional discount periods expired, while at the same time new potential DirecTV Now customers were unwilling to pay the higher prices and therefore not subscribing at all," the complaint said. By the time AT&T bought Time Warner, "AT&T's reported 'net additions' growth trend was already reversing into a severe 'net loss.'"

Publicly traded companies are required to inform investors of risks. But the AT&T registration statement "purported to warn of numerous risks that 'if' occurring 'may' or 'could' adversely affect the company while failing to disclose that these 'risks' had already materialized at the time of the acquisition," the complaint said.

Under US law, AT&T was required to disclose "known events or uncertainties that had caused or were reasonably likely to cause AT&T's disclosed financial information not to be indicative of future operating results," the complaint said. "AT&T's undisclosed price increases and discontinuance of promotional discounts for DirecTV Now subscribers, the consequent DirecTV Now subscriber losses, and the already occurring reversal of its touted 'net additions' total subscriber growth trend were likely to (and in fact did) materially and adversely affect AT&T's future results and prospects."

AT&T's discussion of risk factors in the registration statement "did not even mention, much less adequately describe, the risk posed by AT&T’s price increases and discontinuance of promotional discounts for DirecTV Now subscribers, nor the consequent DirecTV Now subscriber losses," the complaint said.

AT&T publicly revealed DirecTV Now's problems on October 24, 2018 when it reported third-quarter earnings. The complaint said:

Traditional DirecTV satellite subscriber losses jumped over 25% from 286,000 to 359,000 quarterly. Meanwhile, DirecTV Now subscribers plummeted over 85% from 342,000 down to 49,000 quarterly. These dramatically diminished DirecTV Now subscriber gains were nowhere close to offsetting the dramatically increased traditional satellite subscriber losses. As a result, Defendant AT&T's 80,000 total video subscriber "Net Video Additions" had reversed into a 297,000 total subscriber "Net Loss."

Negative media coverage about DirecTV Now's performance followed, and AT&T's stock price dropped nearly 12 percent, the complaint said.

Class certification

The complaint seeks certification of a class consisting of all people who acquired AT&T common stock in connection with the Time Warner acquisition, and all people who acquired AT&T stock between October 22, 2016 and October 24, 2018.

A man named Melvin Gross is the lead plaintiff, and the suit was filed by the Pomerantz LLP law firm, which announced its investigation into AT&T in February. Separately, the Klein Law Firm says it filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of shareholders against AT&T.

AT&T told Ars that the new lawsuit "is a carbon copy of a baseless suit filed in February. In both cases, the claims are wholly without merit."

At least two other law firms are investigating similar claims against AT&T.

The Gross/Pomerantz complaint asks for damages "in an amount to be proven at trial, including interest," reimbursement for legal costs, and other relief.

FURTHER READING

AT&T raises DirecTV Now price—again—after promising lower post-merger bills
In March of this year, AT&T raised the price of DirecTV Now and reduced the number of channels customers receive. AT&T also raised DirecTV Now prices in July 2018, despite telling the government and a federal judge the merger would result in lower TV prices.

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Re: Streaming is a Flop - Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by tvroadmin » Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:33 pm

So much for the streaming revolution. It was a dud. :deadhorse2:

If anyone reading this in 2019 is still brainwashed and sending thousands of dollars every year to the 'Billionaire's Club' :gathering: to watch a handful of TV channels, you really ought to have your head examined. :doh



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Re: Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by Blackloz » Sun Apr 14, 2019 1:36 am

OMG!!! Why are the investors suing DIRECTV? If they are losing money it is because of the widespread illegal iptv being enabled by DISH NETWORK, BELL and SKY. :retarded Where do people think these channels come from? I have seen dealers at every flea market across my state selling DISH NETWORK subscriptions for $20 per year. Every channel is there and numbered just like on the dish ird. It is even worse online where thousands upon thousands of dealers sell DISH and BELL channels for as low as $2 per month with thousands of vod movies.

How can DIRECTV or any cable company be expected to compete with such massive thievery? :thinking They should complain to the FTC, FCC and other regulators and take legal action against DISH NETWORK and BELL to stop them or they will go bankrupt just like soloman predicted.


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Re: Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by tvroadmin » Sun Apr 14, 2019 11:41 pm

Leaks are coming from DirecTV too. HDHomerun was forced to shut down recently. All their content was allegedly being stolen from DirecTV.

Streaming has turned out to be a double-edged sword. Somebody at pay-tv HQ didn't think this thru. Sure programmers can cut out the middle men and stream the content themselves, but content thieves can do the same and cut the programmers out too. Pay-tv streaming services will not end well, including giants like Netflix. The economic barriers to entry in this business are so low now that once valuable copyrighted content is turning into a cheap commodity. Investors are not happy about all this and have started a mutiny. :reallyangry

On the other hand, I hear ATSC 3.0 FTA programming is coming to over 50 markets in 2020. Barriers to entry in this business are extremely high because spectrum is a valuable commodity. I bet the smart money is behind ATSC 3.0! :wink:
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Re: Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by Victoria » Mon Apr 29, 2019 2:08 pm

Streaming isn't a flop. Linear television channels are a flop. It doesn't matter whether delivered via fiber or coax or satellite or IP.

The delivery mechanism has never been the primary issue with television. It's fairly low on the pecking order.

People are tired of

1) High prices
2) Commercials
3) Having to worry about scheduling recordings and hoping for the best instead of just being able to watch what they want when they want at any time
4) Channel logos and advertising slapped over the picture at all times
5) Terrible picture quality due to channels stagnating at 720p/1080i resolution and using MPEG-2 forever. Netflix and Amazon have been delivering 4K streams with HDR for years. Netflix now serves up 768 Kbps Dolby Atmos audio streams. Linear TV channels look like garbage by comparison.

The only channels I've seen that have picture quality comparable to Netflix are those 4K channels being uplinked on 101W.

Linear television is a dying technology that will keep shrinking in market share over time and "on demand" subscription options will keep growing. Eventually the only thing left that broadcasts live will be sports, news, and awards shows/concerts, and all other channels will collapse and shift to on demand services. The sports networks and news networks will likely shift to being live subscription channels delivered via the Internet and all the other types of linear TV channels will be shuttered into Netflix-style VOD services.

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Re: Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by gtalover1 » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:04 pm

Victoria wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 2:08 pm
Streaming isn't a flop. Linear television channels are a flop. It doesn't matter whether delivered via fiber or coax or satellite or IP.

The delivery mechanism has never been the primary issue with television. It's fairly low on the pecking order.

People are tired of

1) High prices
2) Commercials
3) Having to worry about scheduling recordings and hoping for the best instead of just being able to watch what they want when they want at any time
4) Channel logos and advertising slapped over the picture at all times
5) Terrible picture quality due to channels stagnating at 720p/1080i resolution and using MPEG-2 forever. Netflix and Amazon have been delivering 4K streams with HDR for years. Netflix now serves up 768 Kbps Dolby Atmos audio streams. Linear TV channels look like garbage by comparison.

The only channels I've seen that have picture quality comparable to Netflix are those 4K channels being uplinked on 101W.

Linear television is a dying technology that will keep shrinking in market share over time and "on demand" subscription options will keep growing. Eventually the only thing left that broadcasts live will be sports, news, and awards shows/concerts, and all other channels will collapse and shift to on demand services. The sports networks and news networks will likely shift to being live subscription channels delivered via the Internet and all the other types of linear TV channels will be shuttered into Netflix-style VOD services.

You go Victoria.

Tell it like it probably will be.

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Re: Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by tvroadmin » Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:26 pm

Linear television will always be around. On-demand is just a complement to linear. Cable and satellite already offer on-demand.

What is actually dying is pay TV. The plebs can no longer afford it, whether it is delivered by satellite, cable or internet. The TV landscape is changing, but old technologies won't disappear because of streaming. It is like saying the high end steakhouse in town will go out of business because a burger joint is opening. Or the burger joint will go under because hot dog vendors are coming to town. Or they will all go out of business because a food bank is opening.

It is all about quality and affordability.

C Band Satellite = Steak House
DirecTV = Hamburger Joint
Hot Dogs = Cable/Dish/Orby
Food Bank (can of beans) = Streaming
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Re: Streaming is a Flop: Investors sue DirecTV Now

Post by Victoria » Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:06 pm

tvroadmin wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:26 pm
C Band Satellite = Steak House
DirecTV = Hamburger Joint
Hot Dogs = Cable/Dish/Orby
Food Bank (can of beans) = Streaming
If I had to rank it, I'd say...

High End Dining = 4K HDR streams from Netflix/Amazon, 4K Blu-rays, 3D Blu-rays, Blu-ray season sets of TV shows.

High End Dining That You're Not Really Supposed to Be Able To Be Getting = 4K/HD feeds delivered via C-Band satellite / Ku band uplinks

These transmissions aren't really intended for the end user but you can get your hands on them because so few people know how to access them that the uplinkers don't bother putting hardcore protection on them. I'd say our hobby is similar to constantly making new accounts in order to use "new customer" discounts from Grubhub / DoorDash to get some great food delivered from a nice restaurant cheaper than paying retail price.

I.E. Grubhub's "$12 off a $15 order for your first order" for new accounts or DoorDash's "$10 off your first $10 order with free delivery for new customers". But of course, if everyone started doing what we're doing, they'd crack down on it...

Mid-range dining = HD channels via over-the-air antenna reception.

Low end dining = HD channels via cable and DirecTV/Dish Network's garbage quality pizza pan uplinks. Regurgitated slop that is a pale imitation of a high end dining experience. Think of it like a McDonald's burger vs. a high-end restaurant. McDonald's burgers are technically burgers, they're more popular than more expensive burgers from a local place, but... you never finish a McDonald's burger and think to yourself "I'm glad I just ate that."

DVDs and standard definition TV from any source = TV dinners

So basically... 4K streamers and satellite backhaul watchers are the master race and the people who pay for the overcompressed, commercial laden crap dished out from cable or dish are the peasants. I've moved all of my viewing of movies and scripted TV shows to web / physical disc sources which leaves C-band for 'reality' type TV shows, live events, and documentaries.

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