AT&T

AT&T

It’s still nearly impossible to get HBO, or any other pay-TV channel, without subscribing to a pay-TV package that gives you a bundle of channels, whether you want them or not. But the people who sell you TV are starting to tinker with the model, at least at the margins. Several pay-TV providers, for instance, sell “skinny” bundles of pay TV that allow you to buy a handful of channels. Now Dish is looking to do something similar with pay TV sold over the Web, and Sony’s Web TV model may be in the same wheelhouse. Then there’s another category of offers meant to appeal to people who think they want to cut the cord, or don’t want the cord in the first place: Packages that give users broadband, a smattering of basic cable channels and HBO for $50 or less per month. Now AT&T has made its cheap broadband+TV package even more interesting: It’s throwing a year of Amazon Prime into the mix, which means subscribers get free shipping on stuff they buy from Jeff Bezos — as well as Amazon’s Netflix-like offering of TV shows and movies.

Read the full story at re/code.

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