With subscriber growth of its virtual pay-TV platform, DirecTV Now, flatlining in the first quarter, AT&T continues to try to goose the platform with promotions.
The wireless giant’s latest scheme involves struggling electronics retailer Best Buy—customers who purchase an eligible Roku, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV OTT streaming device will receive one month of free DirecTV Now service.
The offer, which started Sunday, applies to the $35-a-month “Live a Little” base tier.
RELATED: DirecTV Now offering free Roku Premiere to customers who prepay
The Best Buy promotion comes on the heels of a previous offer in which AT&T is providing a free Roku Premiere device to those who commit to two months of DirecTV Now service.
RELATED: DirecTV Now lost 3K subscribers in February, was flat in March, report says
After attracting what it said were close to 200,000 sign-ups in the first 30 days of operation for DirecTV Now, the platform hit the skids in February, adding only around 3,000 subscribers, according to Bloomberg. Growth was flat in March, the news service added.
AT&T executives said that the early fast growth of the platform caught them “flat-footed,” as a coalescence of a mass audience for the nascent platform outpaced the ability of engineers to work out early bugs.
AT&T executives said they scaled back promotion in the first quarter to work out those technical kinks.