So this week, AT&T announced that they were giving their “Unlimited Plus” accounts access to free HBO streaming. At first I thought the offer existed for only folks who had Unlimited Plus in addition to a subscription to any of their video services (Uverse, Direct TV, Dish Network) - simply additive, and not separate. But then I saw multiple news outlets stating plainly that you could have free HBO with just the Unlimited Plus account. No additional video subscription required.

Being an Unlimited Plus account holder that doesn’t pay an additional dime to AT&T for video services, this was welcome news!

There was still the elephant in the room though - how do you get a login account for a video service without paying for another subscription?

The good news is that you can, but it sure as hell isn’t obvious.

Here are the steps...

  1. Head to directvnow.com.
  2. Click the "Sign In" link.
  3. Below the login fields you'll see a "Don't have DIRECTV NOW?" link. Click that.
  4. This will take you to an account sign up page. Before you fill anything out, click the "Verify Number" link.
  5. Type the phone number on your Unlimited Plus account and click "Check My Number".
  6. The site will then text you at your number. Follow their instructions and reply to the text with a simple "Yes". The site will then refresh - pronouncing that you are eligible for free HBO - taking you back to the account set up page.
  7. Fill out the account fields and click through to the next step.
  8. On this next screen you will be given the option to just stream HBO, or sign up for a DIRECTV Now package at an additional cost. Choose the HBO-only option and you are done!

Yes, you get pressured into purchasing an additional monthly subscription to DIRECTV (of course you do, starting price $10 a month) but other than that, you are never asked for a credit card or anything.

It truly is a free service as advertised!

Register Those Devices!

Now that you have your free DIRECTV Now account, you can use it to register your streaming devices accordingly. In the interest of simplicity, I just downloaded the HBO GO apps (NOT the HBO Now apps) on my iOS and tvOS devices and did the usual activation dance via hbogo.com/activate.

Taking a bullet.

I always get overly irritated when companies aren’t straight forward with their highly publicized offerings. I won’t go into the hours I put in simply finding out how to make this work. Or the 30 minute chat session where an AT&T rep bold-faced lied to me, stating that I had to have a monthly subscription to an AT&T video service in order to receive the free HBO access that was being offered.

I’m sure the info is out there but, honestly, it should’ve taken me under 10 minutes to figure this out. Hopefully, by boosting this signal, I can give you back some of the day that I missed! Enjoy!