AT&T video portal gets U-verse tag

AT&T has rebranded its AT&T Entertainment video portal as U-verse Online and added more options to the public site for its own U-verse TV customers.

The rebranding comes just nine months after the Web site launched as AT&T Entertainment. At that time, several observers pinned it as a Hulu copycat, though AT&T pledged to offer more differentiated content through the portal. It repeated that pledge in announcing the rebranding this week, saying it has added video offerings to the portal since last fall, that and more content and features will be added later this year.

As TV Everywhere activities continue to percolate, recent months have seen launches of free video portal from carriers such as AT&T and Frontier Communications, as they look to stake a claim on the already massive audiences watching video via Hulu and other sites.

While “AT&T Entertainment” not only made the purpose of the portal clear but also mentioned the corporate name, Jonathan Hurd, director with management consulting firm Altman, Vilandrie & Co., said that rebranding the portal to connect it with AT&T’s existing brand for broadband and TV makes sense.

"As TV and online platforms converge with initiatives like TV Everywhere, service providers are re-thinking their branding to make their offers clearer to consumers," Hurd said. "The idea is that it's the same service whether you're viewing it on a TV or on a broadband platform, and in many cases it makes sense for that video service to be branded separately from the corporate brand."

Along with the re-naming, U-verse Online also now offers account integration for U-verse TV customers, as well as information about programming, channel lineups, video-on-demand titles, new applications and other details that previously had been found on AT&T’s U-connect site. DVR recordings also can be scheduled and managed directly from U-verse Online portal with U-verse Web Remote Access. Like the content offered on U-verse Online, many of those added features are similar to what you might find at Comcast’s Xfinity.com site.