Live TV App Launching Next Week Is First Offer Out of AT&T/Time Warner

In a tie-in with closing its buy of Time Warner, AT&T Wireless Thursday rolled out a streaming video app, WatchTV, due to launch Tuesday with Unlimited & More and Unlimited & More Premium wireless plans and a $15 per month stand-alone option. WatchTV customers will be able to stream 31 live channels at launch, including A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, CNN, Discovery, Food Network, History, IFC, Lifetime, Sundance TV, Turner Classic Movies and TNT, said the carrier. The Premium plan adds one premium entertainment service at no extra cost from a choice of HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, Amazon Music Unlimited, Pandora Premium or the VRV gaming service, it said. The WatchTV app is compatible on “virtually every” current smartphone, tablet or browser and “certain streaming devices,” it said. AT&T called WatchTV the first of “new offers to come” from the takeover, combining content and connectivity for a “fresh approach to how media and entertainment works for you.” The carrier referenced a “new level of choice, innovation and value” and a more personalized and immersive entertainment experience that includes “experimenting with new forms of content” and offering new ways to access premium content “especially on mobile devices.” Wireless plans start at $80 per month for Unlimited & More and $90 per month for Premium, a chat representative told us. Premium customers will get 15 GB of high-speed Wi-Fi hot spot access and access to HD video; customers of both plans will receive a $15 monthly credit toward DirecTV, DirecTV Now or U-verse TV, said AT&T.