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AT&T giving away free Roku boxes to new DirecTv Now customers

By Keith Nelson Jr. June 15, 2017

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If you are in the market for a Roku Premiere set-top box, you may want to give AT&T a call. The carrier is offering a free Roku Premiere to any new customer that prepays two months of their DirecTV Now subscription.

It is a limited time offer and only new customers signing up for DirecTV Now are eligible to get a free Roku Premiere. Do not expect to stockpile on Roku devices since AT&T is limiting each customer to two Roku boxes. You can redeem your offer online now on DirecTV Now’s website. You will be able to get your Roku from an AT&T store starting June 23.

AT&T is giving you a free way to watch DirecTV Now, but the company is also offering a new cost-effective bundle. Earlier this month, those with an AT&T Unlimited Choice mobile subscription could get unlimited data and access to DirecTV Now’s 60-plus channel Live A Little package for $70 per month. Unlimited Choice plans start at $60 per month, Live A Little starts at $35 per month, so that offer could save you $25 every month.

DirecTV Now has been struggling to get new subscribers recently. In its first month, DirecTV Now amassed more than 200,000 subscribers. In May, DirecTV Now reportedly lost 3,000 subscribers in February and remained flat in March for a total subscriber base hovering around 325,000 as of late May. Its over-the-top competitor — Dish’s Sling TV — has been the leader in the skinny bundle race with 1.3 million subscribers at the end of March.

Offering free goodies to entice new customers has been in AT&T’s promotional strategy since DirecTV Now launched in November. For the first six weeks of DirecTV Now’s existence, AT&T offered 100 channels for $35 a month. That is nearly 50 percent off the price of its 100 channel Go Big package which is $60 per month. That promotional period coincided with DirecTV Now’s best month in terms of subscriber growth.

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Keith Nelson Jr.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Keith Nelson Jr is a music/tech journalist making big pictures by connecting dots. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY he…

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DirecTV Now sheds more than 250,000 subscribers in a single quarter

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What a difference three months makes. At the end of 2017, DirecTV Now -- the streaming subscription offering from AT&T aimed at staunching the flow of cord-cutters leaving the company's satellite service -- had more than 1 million subscribers and was rapidly adding new sign-ups. It reached a zenith of 1.86 million at the end of 2018's second quarter. That frenzied expansion has come to an end it seems, as the latest numbers painfully illustrate: Over the course of the fourth quarter of 2018, the service lost 267,000 paying customers. Its current subscriber count sits at around 1.6 million.

Why the sharp decline? AT&T attributes it to the people who signed up under the company's promotional price plan, then decided to leave once that discounted rate ceased. The quarterly report notes that there are no longer any customers on the discounted promotional offer and that the number of people on its more expensive plans has remained stable.

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Sling TV offers free shows, a la carte subscription channels to Roku users

Sling TV

Sling TV, the streaming subscription service owned by Dish, is hoping to capture some new subscribers using the tried and tested approach of offering free samples. Starting this week, Sling said it is letting a "select" group of Roku users -- who are not already Sling subscribers -- watch individual Sling shows, and even subscribe to Sling channels without paying a cent or starting a free subscription or handing over credit card info.

The free shows include popular titles like Shameless, The Big Interview with Dan Rather, and Heartland. A Sling spokesperson also confirmed that some of the free content will be ad-supported, according to Variety. When opening the Sling TV app on a Roku device, new Sling TV users can click “browse as guest” to launch the Sling TV interface. Available programming will live in the “My TV” section. Eventually, this will roll out to all Roku users.

Entertainment

Where to watch Sleepless in Seattle

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle

Fans don't really need a reason to revisit Sleepless in Seattle beyond the fact that it's one of the best romantic comedies ever made. The film also has its fair share of drama, as Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and his son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), mourn for their wife and mother, respectively. Because Jonah wants his dad to be happy, he calls into a nationally syndicated radio show to share his story, which captures the attention and the imagination of Annie Reed (Meg Ryan). Annie is very intrigued by Sam's plight regardless of the fact that she's already engaged to Walter Jackson (Bill Pullman).

Thanks largely to this film, Hanks and Ryan are considered rom-com royalty. The irony is that they share very little screen time together. This movie shouldn't work as well as it does, but few romantic comedies have matched its success. It's just a classic, and we're here to tell you where you can stream Sleepless in Seattle.
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