Changes are afoot for HBO underneath its new company overlords at AT&T. But what these modifications is perhaps are nonetheless anybody’s guess.
After longtime HBO CEO Richard Plepler abruptly resigned final week, AT&T executives went on a media tour to speak in regards to the channel’s future, take pictures at Netflix, and trace on the streaming service AT&T plans to launch this yr. Still, these interviews didn’t reveal a lot in the best way of specifics. If something, AT&T and HBO’s streaming plans appear even murkier than they did per week in the past.
Here’s what I’m nonetheless scratching my head over:
At the identical time, AT&T’s John Stankey lately instructed The Hollywood Reporter that he desires the corporate’s companies to be in 60- to 70 % of U.S. houses. Growing a streaming service to that stage of adoption would require main investments in content material and aggressive pricing, which implies AT&T’s development and profitability objectives are basically at odds.
What does all this imply for you?
To convey it residence for cord-cutters, all these questions quantity to numerous uncertainty over the way you’ll entry HBO and different AT&T content material sooner or later. Will HBO Now exist as a standalone $15-per-month streaming service subsequent yr, or will costs change as AT&T rolls that content material into its new service? Will you continue to be capable to add an HBO subscription to Amazon Prime, or will AT&T pull the channel’s content material again into its personal siloed apps? And for those who take pleasure in watching WarnerMedia-owned exhibits like Friends, or motion pictures like The Dark Knight on Netflix, how for much longer will that be an possibility?
Right now, AT&T doesn’t appear to have the solutions.
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