AT&T lures video customers with free HD

AT&T is countering successful cable bundling with an offer of its own to lure new video customers – free High Definition TV for one year for newcomers to either its U-Verse service, based on a new fiber-to-the-node network, or its co-branded satellite TV offers with DISH Networks, owned by EchoStar, and DirecTV.

The offer is valued at up to $240, but the value to AT&T will be in capturing new business which it hopes to retain once the free year is over and standard HD technology fees apply.

U-Verse customers have to subscribe to the U-Verse standard definition television package. New AT&T/DISH customers, in the 13 states previously served by SBC, get $20 in mail-in rebate credits for the first 10 months and $40 in mail-in rebate credits for the last two months. New DirecTV customers, in the nine states previously served by BellSouth, will get $10 monthly bill credits that offset the $9.99 monthly HD fee, if they subscribe to Triple Choice, the combination of voice, data and video services that BellSouth and DirecTV have sold.

By emphasizing its HD capabilities, AT&T also is leveraging what once was a weakness but now is perceived by company officials as a strength. At Telephony’s IPTV Workshop in March, Michael Grasso, assistant vice president of consumer marketing for AT&T U-verse said is now a leader in HD, offering 25 HD channels on U-verse, which is more than the cable companies in its markets are offering.