AT&T announced that its IPTV service called U-verse will be available on PCs and cell phones. Only certain channels, like A&E Broadband, Fox News, The Weather Channel, and Bloomberg TV will be available.

This is an interesting move by AT&T. It differentiates its TV service from cable and satellite providers and from Verizon, an IPTV competitor here in the U.S.

Here’s how it will work. U-verse subscribers pay an extra $10 per month and will be able to watch about 30 channels on their PCs. Later, the service–called U-verse OnTheGo–will be available on AT&T wireless devices.

AT&T is providing this service through a partner, MobiTV. There’s no word on what type of content protection the shows will have or if it will be stored on user’s hard drives. I doubt TV studios would want that. MobiTV currently streams shows to cell phones, so I think that’s how the U-verse content will be delivered.

One analyst called the new service “weak” especially compared with other services like NetFlix, Amazon’s Unbox and others. I think the $10 price tag is a big high. This seems more like a value-added service, if it’s going to PCs.

But it’s an interesting integration of PCs and TVs, except this time the TV is coming to the PC, rather than the other way around. Will people really want to get their U-verse channels on a PC?

AT&T’s U-verse service, launched in 2006, is presently available in 15 U.S. markets.