AT&T CruiseCast in-car TV finally launches nationwide
By Darren Murph 
posted Jun 2nd 2009 5:23PM
posted Jun 2nd 2009 5:23PM
AT&T CruiseCastSM Service Launches Nationwide In-Vehicle Entertainment Package
Channels Deliver Kids Content, News, Sports, Weather and Lifestyle Real-Time Programming
DALLAS–June 2, 2009-AT&T Services Inc. and RaySat Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) announced today that AT&T CruiseCastSM service is now available across the continental United States with a robust lineup of content. Whether driving around town or on vacation, consumers can now enjoy 42 channels of satellite TV and radio on their existing rear-seat entertainment systems.
Programming includes the following video channels:
USA Network
SCI FI
Discovery
Animal Planet
CNN mobile
Adult Swim Mobile
Lifetime Channel
NFL Network
MSNBC
FOX News
AccuWeather
ESPN Mobile
Disney
Disney XD
Discovery Kids
Cartoon Network Mobile
CBS College Sports Network
The programming lineup also includes five additional video channels that are favorites among young children, "tweens" and teen-agers.
To learn more about the AT&T CruiseCast service,to viewthe complete channel lineup and to find a local installer, visit www.cruisecast.com/launch.
"We are very pleased to bring this fantastic lineup of channels to our AT&T CruiseCast customers nationwide," said Winston Guillory Jr., president of RBC. "In-vehicle satellite entertainment is the next major trend in consumer electronics. We are proud to deliver a robust live-TV experience to vehicles."
The AT&T CruiseCast service is made consumer-friendly by the unique scaling down of satellite technology into the small pod-like antenna that affixes to the roof of vehicles. The antenna is paired with a receiver that is mounted in the vehicle and provides all video and audio connections to the appropriate vehicle systems, such as rear seat entertainment, vehicle audio system, etc. The antenna is secured to a roof-rack on sedans, SUVs and mini-vans and via a magnetic mount on all other vehicles. The AT&T CruiseCast service utilizes breakthrough technology that overcomes line-of-sight obstacles such as overpasses, buildings, trees or tunnels to deliver television programming to cars, non-commercial trucks and SUVs.
AT&T CruiseCast service is available through a nationwide network of authorized installers and aftermarket-car retail outlets. Once the system is installed, consumers can sign up online for service at http://www.cruisecast.com or call 866-800-9030. Customers will create a personal profile, select a payment method and choose programming features. Once a profile is on record, and the installer has completed the equipment installation, the service will be activated over the air. The manufacturer's adjusted price (MAP) of the equipment (antenna and receiver) is $1,299 and the monthly subscription fee is $28.
This groundbreaking AT&T CruiseCast service was created through the collaboration of RBC and AT&T*, the world's premier telecommunications company. RBC, a privately held U.S. company, has worked with AT&T Business Development to introduce the new product to the marketplace.
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. as well as third party licensees under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
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I bet truckers will enjoy this.
Great, now we'll have politicians pretending to make themselves useful by making more unnecessary laws, like the cell phone law (already covered under Wreckless Driving).
How is this better than the TV service Sirius offers?
If I was a trucker I would go with one of those KVM Trackvision mobile dishes that connect to Direct TV. Much better deal and you get ALL regular Direct TV channels. You can get them for SUVs and mini-vans too, they are slim and attach to the roof rack of the car.
The Sirius offering has a much reduced tv channel lineup from what I remember.
My kids will watch DVDs and like it....
** putting my foot down.
Excellent. This is good news in preparation for the day when we will all be living in our cars because if we don't buy real estate now we'll be priced out forever. Those guys on anonboard.com were totally right!
Wow, totally connected!
no porn?
seeing as the audience would be children in the backseat, no.
o.O
This will totally kill the trucker market.
How many people really spend enough time on the road to need this other than truckers? The occasional family trip can't justify the price. You can get a car DVD player for $50 and stick in TV DVD's or movies.
The other thing is if they can do this for $28 a mo why not have a iphone TV plan for $10 a month extra?
FAIL
One could Argue that anyone in LA (or Atlanta, or Chiacgo, or anywhere else with bad enough traffic) might be able to justify this if you have kids. It could make getting stuck for 1.5 hours on the 405, just really huge and crappy inconvenience rather than the torture it would be for the same family with out a distraction for the little humans in the backseat...
very random, but that picture is taken in Israel... lol
somehow i recognize the place despite the fact that i live in NY =]
*back to topic* seems pretty cool, but more of a thing for extremely well off people to just throw their money at
Just curious... What are you talking about? There isn't anything in the background to give any clue where it is. Did the picture change or are you talking about something completely different?
Yeah I couldn't figure it out either, you have to click the link and go to the gallery to see the whole car.
http://cruisecast.com/images/gallery/launch/_DSCF0540_1.jpg
it does indeed have Israeli plates
yea they changed the pic, thanks nismo for realizing =]
the first thing that actually caught my eye was the building (tel aviv? netanya? or maybe im just miserably wrong lol)
orite and on the left of the license plate you see it's israeli
I like how this article, all about the service launching nationally here in the U.S., features an image of a car with clearly non-U.S. license plates.
i was just about to ask about porn.
Coulnd't you do this much cheaper with a Slingbox? If you have a mobile phone that does video out and has unlimited data (Touch Pro), you could essentially do the same thing at a much cheaper rate.
your 3G coverage is that good? This is news!
I've been under the impression that 3G coverage in the US is patchy at best.
Zackly what I've been doing with my Touch Pro and my Palm 700 before that. Plus, with SlingBox I can watch stuff I recorded on my TiVo and skip commercials.
SlingBox mobile is better than any of of the choices offered by the carriers with acess to all the channels you have at home, plus DVR and OnDemand. I have a feeling the wireless carriers and/or the TV networks, Satellite and Cable providers are going to find a way to throw a wrench into SlingBox before too long, because it's better than any mobile TV product I've seen from any of them.
Ugh, the selection is terrible. What is ESPN Mobile? Is that like a bad version of ESPN News? Where are the networks? Where are the rest of the cable channels like TBS, TNT, BBC America, Bravo, TLC, Food, HGTV, FX, VH1, E!?
Israeli cars with American TV?
I wish I could get American TV in Israel :(
My kids will play the license plate game and "I spy" and like it! It was good enough for me growing up and it's good enough for them. None of this expensive video crap to dry up their imaginations and turn them into passive little "consumers".
Well, they would if I had kids. Get off my lawn!
$1,299 just because my sorry broke blogger doesn't know what kind of 'next-gen' tech I need to invest in?
or $28 just because I need to add to my already $ phone bill, $ electric bill, $ 6-months auto insurance, $ monthly rent, $ daily nutrition, $ girl friend holiday gifts (valentine included -and top all $$ gifts), $ I can keep going...
Hmmmm, paint it up to look like the head of an R2-D2... niiiiiiiiiiice
They could have made it look just a tiny bit less ugly.
i hope at&t makes thousands of these devices available at launch and not sell a single one!
go swim with the fishes at&t
I wonder if I could use this in my house instead of a car. 95% of my television watching is USA, SCI FI, Discovery, Animal Planet, and Adult Swim. I pay over $100 a month for my cable package. If I could use this at home I'd buy one tomorrow.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Most of my cable watching is cable news and Noggin. Those are the only things keeping me from ditching cable and relying on terrestrial digital broadcast TV. If I could get this in my house, I'd lose the cable TV in a second.
why the hell would i need 3 nickelodeon channels and 2 disney channels? what a friggin waste.
Why oh why can't our government participate like those of Korea, China and parts of Europe and launch DMB satellites and offer free satellite broadcasting to DMB equipped devices that cost a fraction of this ridiculous setup and don't require a "goofy" roof antenna? My god our country is in the backwoods when it comes to some of this stuff.
they are pretty good units i actually just got the contract from florida markiting group to be a dealer for the product. has its ups and downs the biggest being its half the price of the KVH unit and the down fall being its limited channel listing. also its a little to tall to be putting it on sedans. still suv/van perfect.
Awesome!
I want the DMB technology from Korea...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Broadcasting
Just taken a look at the KVH TracVision - looks like the hardware not tied to anything, just pay your DirectTV / Sky over here and done with.
Someone would totally steal that if its just ontop of the car haha sucks
True. How do they plan on preventing this?
Rip-off. Kids don't need any more brain rotting with live TV. If they have a few shows on a portable media player or laptop, or even Slinging what they want from a DVR over a 3G network, that's plenty good enough. Plus, the license plate game, some map reading, and ID'ing what trucks are carrying and the haz-mat symbols should keep them plenty busy.
I saw this in a small SUV and it looked ok, but it's still noticeable like the KVH.
The Sling my friends is not that good, I've been using it for many years now until recently I got a $200 bill from Verizon for going over my data limit. I watched a Yankee game and a movie on Hulu.
SO, I think this would be a good option for limo companies, truckers, people w kids in the car, etc. I'd like to know how this works in NYC with the tall buildings; the KVH is totally useless there.