In a recent public statement, AT&T boasted about the growth of its premium streaming service HBO Max. All told, there are about 28.7 million customers eligible for HBO Max at the moment, and actual activations doubled in the third quarter of 2020. That said, it wasn't enough to offset the losses faced by WarnerMedia's Warner Bros. division. Due to the pandemic, the organization is facing a 28% decrease in revenue from a loss of film and TV releases.
There is also an interesting caveat to the HBO Max news. As mentioned, there are about 28.7 million customers who are able to access HBO Max given their existing HBO subscription. However, of that number, the company reported only 8.6 million activations, meaning the majority of those who have access to HBO Max have not chosen to actually use the service yet. From breaking down the 28.7 million figure, there are about 3.6 million customers who subscribe directly to HBO Max, and around 28.7 million who get HBO Max as part of a bundle from a company like Comcast or DirectTV.
All told, AT&T claims to have invested $600 million into the premium streaming service for Q3, making a total of $1.3 billion dollars this year alone. While announcing the Q3 info, AT&T CEO John Stankey discussed the service: “We continue to grow and scale HBO Max, with total domestic HBO and HBO Max subscribers topping 38 million — well ahead of our expectations for the full year.” Despite the growth of HBO Max, AT&T's total revenue was down from the same time last year, dropping from $44.6 billion to $42.3.
One of the struggling divisions is DirectTV, which the company has reportedly been attempting to offload, either by selling or re-organizing it. Over the past 12 months DirectTV has lost about 3.3 million customers, a trend that seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Overall AT&T expects to have a cash flow of $26 billion dollars that it can freely spend in 2020, which according to Stankey will “position [AT&T] to continue investing in [their] growth areas and pay down debt.”
Source: Variety