Photo: ANP
Video streaming service HBO Max and pay-TV channel HBO attracted 4.4 million new subscribers last quarter. The new season of the Succession series, the films Dune and The Matrix Resurrections were key factors attracting the service, which is part of AT&T’s entertainment and communications group.
HBO Max is a Netflix competitor, just like Disney+, Apple TV+, and Amazon Prime Video, for example. Netflix gained over 8 million new subscribers in the last quarter of 2021, but it’s available in many more countries than HBO Max.
Turnover in WarnerMedia’s business unit, which includes HBO and HBO Max, is up more than 15 percent and accounted for nearly a quarter of the group’s total sales. This offset some of the displacements in AT&T Mobile’s service, as the number of new subscribers grew less quickly than expected. Competitor Verizon performed better than expected in this period.
In the fourth quarter, AT&T sales as a whole were $41 billion, or 36.3 billion euros. That’s 10 percent down from the same period in 2020. Bottom line, the company made $5 billion in profit, compared to a loss of $13.9 billion the year before.
AT&T is locked in a fierce competition for telephony with Verizon and T-Mobile as the three companies roll out their 5G networks across the United States. Lots of Money Involved AT&T expects to spend about $20 billion on it this year.
