Commentary

The End of the Cable Paradigm

AT&T announced today that it will offer real-time feeds of 20 TV channels, including Fox News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel and the History Channel, as part of a new video service that will be available to broadband users anywhere in the U.S., whether or not they are AT&T landline or DSL customers. The service, called AT&T Broadband TV, represents the most organized attack thus far on the cable TV distribution model and opens the door to “regulatory escape” from local franchise fee structures. AT&T Broadband TV is being launched in partnership with MobiTV, an Internet content aggregator that currently provides video feeds to wireless service providers. The AT&T tie-up, however, represents the first time such a wide array of cable programming that will be simulcast over the Internet. A trial version is available now at https://att.mobitv.com/do/welcome.