AT&T have reported significant subscriber growth for HBO Max in one of their last acts for the now officially spun-off Warner Media streaming platform this week. Entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, has the news for us.
Last Report
As mentioned, this will be the last time we hear from AT&T regarding what once was WarnerMedia, as the long-anticipated merger with Discovery to form the brand new entity Warner Bros Discovery, has recently completed. Their Q2 earnings report will come to us from the new entity, of course.
What will be intriguing to many, however, is whether this might also be the last time we hear from HBO Max as a single entity. With the merger bringing both Discovery + and HBO Max into the fold, it has been announced that the two will merge, but no timeline has yet been given.
Three Million New Subscribers
HBO and HBO Max have a combined streaming subscription total of 76.8M as at the end of Q1 2022, a rise of 3M from the previous quarter. It’s also a 12.8M year-on-year increase. AT&T have always given us the ARPU, or average revenue per user, for domestic subscribers too. Here we see a 9c increase to $11.24 for the quarter.
It’s hard not to position this modest, but appreciable, growth against the news that Netflix suffered its first subscriber loss in over a decade in the same quarter. Coupled with a disappointing earnings report, this has seen its stock plunge, losing over a third of value and tanking $50B from its market cap last Wednesday. The highly obvious factors of increased competitors and pandemic recovery were blamed.
Things certainly seem to be looking up for the streamer, which has been fairly insignificant compared to competitors to date. Where to from here? It will be interesting to see if the promised merger with Discovery+ lives up to the market hype as the ‘next Disney+’ after all.
Film and Television 