If their programming costs are getting higher, then raising prices for a smaller number of customers could be the more profitable move. Particularly if the cust

If their programming costs are getting higher, then raising prices for a smaller number of customers could be the more profitable move. Particularly if the customers they are losing have more support costs (which I think was also an argument of AT&Ts). But, it's really hard to figure any of this out when talking about ATT. They have 4 (at least) different ways to sell TV service (DirecTV satellite, AT&T TV, AT&T TV Now, and AT&T Watch TV). If those names aren't confusing enough, then I'm sure they still sell U-Verse service somewhere too. Each of these services was/is losing customers, but at different rates. And the cost for each service varies a lot too, as does the programming available. I actually subscribe to AT&T TV Now, but I'm on a grandfathered programming package that isn't available any longer. Who knows how many other grandfathered packages exist between the varied services. The price hike reported here is for the AT&T TV Now service, which was their older IP TV offering. It's been a pretty open secret for a while that they have been trying to get as many people off of that service and moved over to the (more expensive) AT&T TV service as possible.