AT&T the owner of WarnerMedia and the HBO Max Streaming service is claiming “massive” global growth for its new service as it expands internationally and offers a cheaper, ad-free option, the big question is what is set to happen to the deal with Foxtel.
Launched last year in the USA the service is tipped to be heading to Australia at some stage where it will compete head on with archrivals Disney and Netflix as well as local streaming services Stan and Binge.
The big question is whether AT&T will stay will Foxtel who has a growing audience of consumers who stream content or go it alone. Currently Foxtel has a long term deal to show and stream HBO and WarnerMedia content with the network experiencing growth in downloads and pay per movie.
By staying with Foxtel HBO and Warner Media get the benefit of News Corporation who own the largest share in Foxtel to market and advertise their shows.
HBO Max management said at the weekend that they plan to grow its global subscriber base to between 120 million and 150 million for HBO Max and the HBO cable channel combined by the end of 2025.
Roughly half of these subscribers will come from non-US markets such as Australia.
That’s a big increase, considering that parent WarnerMedia said recently that HBO and HBO Max had a combined 41.5 million domestic subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2020.
WarnerMedia chief executive Jason Kilar reminded analysts tuning into AT&T’s virtual investor day on Saturday that in October 2019, the company set a goal of hitting 50 million US subscribers by 2025.
Bloomberg described this as a particularly lowball estimate, considering that premium cable channel HBO already had about 33 million subscribers ahead of HBO Max’s launch. “While this work is ongoing, the most important action is to install the latest Microsoft updates.”
