AT&T Gives Subscribers Free Premium Channels

AT&T said it is giving subscribers to its pay TV services free access to premium channels including Starz, Epix and its own HBO and Cinemax for a limited time.

The company is also launching a new ad campaign that uses the hashtag #ConnectedTogether to show how people practicing social distancing can slow the spread of the coronavirus and how AT&T’s people and technology are helping to bring people together.

The company, one of the nation’s largest advertisers, said it is replacing its current advertising with spots that deliver its message about the importance of connectivity during times of fear and division.

The first of the new spots show families getting together via video chat and workers connecting cables and working in control rooms.

AT&T said that effective Thursday it will begin offering free premium channel content to DirecTV, U-Verse, AT&T TV and AT&T TV Now subscribers. The offer starts Thursday with Starz (only to DirecTV and U-Verse subscribers). On March 2, subscribers will get Epix through April 16. On April 16 through April 20, they’ll get HBO and Cinemax.

“Movies and television have always been a welcome escape in difficult times. With many people staying at home, we’re giving our video customers additional content at no cost during this time,” the company said in a blog post.

Those viewers will be able to catch series including season three of HBO’s Westworld, Epix’s new Belgravia and season five of Starz’s Outlander.

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Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.