AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is ready to take on the competitive world of streaming video service, it announced plans, on Monday, for its own streaming service named, The U-Verse Screen Pack.
This was announced by the company at its AT&T Developer Summit in Las Vegas.
The $5 per month service isn’t necessarily comparable to Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)’s, but is on par with Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)’s Streampix.
The new AT&T digital video service will consist primarily of Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) and MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) titles; they won’t necessarily be recently-released ones, instead there’s a selection of 1,500 movies that includes American Teacher, Assassin’s Code, Charlie’s Angels, Summer in Genoa, Lars and the Real Girl, Rudy, The Wedding Planner, Hotel Rwanda, Legends of the Fall, Snatch–to name a few–reported All Things D.
This library, which will be expanded over time, is accessible through: a TV, a computer, or a wireless device.
For now, AT&T has said the service will be marketed to its current pay-TV customers, but it does have a national reach, similar to Comcast. They will have an opportunity to get a preview of the Screen Pack from January 7 through January 13. It will be available on smartphones and tablets, with movie availability from the U-Verse app.
According to CNET, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) does not view Screen Pack as its answer to either Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) or other services, but instead just an expansion of its current offerings.
Jeff Weber, president of content and advertising sales for AT&T’s home business said via CNET, “It’s just one way to deepen the content opportunities that a customer has.”
In other news, AT&T wants to make consumers’ lives easier with the introduction of its new Digital Life monitoring system.
The company announced the new offering on Monday, also at the Summit. Whether it’s controlling one’s home security or automating tedious tasks, such as the locking of doors or turning off lights, this service can be utilized from a smartphone, tablet or PC–independent of one’s carrier.
The service will launch in March in eight cities with additional cities to be added on a monthly basis.
It has been described as an “all-digital, wireless-based home security and automation service.” For AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), this will provide a new growth opportunity for the company, with industry observers suggesting over the next several years that home security has a lot of growth potential.
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is also part of the venture as it designed the Digital Life’s controller and panel. This is the system that AT&T will use to manage the service via the back-office for customers. It will have five radios to support different in-home sensors, keypads and cameras created from one and two-way voice, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi and 3G cellular, according to Computer World.
