AT&T's Rough Tactics Hurting Tour Ratings, But Will They Raise Red Flags?

LA Times consumer advocate columnist David Lazarus looks at AT&T’s recent efforts to raise prices and employ other tactics.

The efforts are noteworthy in golf circles given that CBS coverage of the PGA Tour has seen a ratings drop in recent weeks due to DirecTV and U-Verse customers losing CBS in a blackout. Those meager audience numbers surely are noticed in Ponte Vedra Beach, though hopefully the blackout is considered in evaluating those numbers.

Furthermore, AT&T is now said to be a possible bidder on the PGA Tour’s next television deal (including a pledge of flipping a current channel to a golf network).

Lazarus writes of AT&T’s post-merger actions:

AT&T wasted no time in raising the price of its DirecTV satellite-TV service by $5 a month. It then raised the price of its DirectTV Now streaming service by $10 a month. (The company said last week DirecTV Now is being renamed AT&T TV Now.)

More than 6.5 million of AT&T’s DirecTV and U-verse pay-TV customers are currently cut off from CBS channels because AT&T says CBS wants too much money for its programming.

Meanwhile, more than 12 million Dish Network and Sling TV subscribers have lost access to AT&T’s HBO and Cinemax channels because, according to Dish, AT&T wants too much money for its own programming.

Put more succinctly, AT&T, after raising subscriber costs, wants to pay as little as possible for channels included on its pay-TV services. But it wants as much as possible from other pay-TV services for its own channels.

And it’s willing to hold consumers hostage to get what it wants.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is on the PGA Tour Policy Board and will have a vote on the next PGA Tour media deal.