HBO Max reached 4.1M subscribers in first month, despite lack of distribution on Roku and Fire TV

HBO Max, the AT&T-owned streaming provider that combines HBO with WarnerMedia content, now has 4.1 million subscribers who have activated their Max accounts, when you consider that its launch on May 27. Combined, HBO and HBO Max reached a whole of 36.3 million U.S. subscribers by means of the quit of the 2d quarter, in accordance to statements made by using AT&T CEO John Stankey on today’s profits call. That determine has grown 5% from the 34.6 million subscribers the residences collectively had at the cease of ultimate year.

The 4.1 million parent represents these who have activated their bills out of the complete 26.5 million subscribers who have been given get admission to to HBO Max. Of these 26.5 million, 23.5 million are wholesale (MPVDs), and three million are retail (direct to consumer.) However, the 4.1 million doesn’t encompass the complete three million subscriber base. *

WarnerMedia additionally clarified that there are 1 million wholesale subscribers the use of HBO Max through one of AT&T’s wi-fi plans or by using AT&T’s broadband and pay TV carrier the place it’s bundled.

Though it’s nonetheless early days for HBO Max, these numbers point out that the great majority of common HBO clients have no longer but tried HBO Max, even even though it’s free for them to use. Currently, HBO clients can authenticate with HBO Max the use of their cable or satellite tv for pc TV company account information. HBO Now subscribers, meanwhile, are mechanically upgraded to Max throughout Hulu, cellular apps, pick out ISPs, and the HBO Now site.

The HBO strategy, from a purchaser perspective, has been confusing. HBO is recognized as top rate channel with in the main person content. This chanel had been disbursed throughout cell gadgets as HBO GO for standard pay TV clients and HBO Now for over-the-top users. With the launch of HBO Max, the aim has been to seriously change HBO into a broader providing for the total family, comparable to Netflix . To do so, HBO, WarnerMedia and different licensed content material was once mixed underneath one roof.

AT&T stated these days that HBO Max clients spent, on average, 70% extra time viewing the carrier on a weekly basis, in contrast with HBO Now. It additionally burdened the recognition of its authentic content, noting that all 6 of its new originals discovered themselves ranked amongst the pinnacle 25 considered collection on the platform. By August, HBO Max will have 21 new unique collection on the platform.

But WarnerMedia nonetheless wishes to distribute “standard” HBO to its larger, present purchaser base, and has a range of deals in vicinity to do so throughout a range of streaming TV services, like Hulu, and platforms, like Apple TV, in addition to severa pay TV providers. In addition, HBO is offered as an add-on top class subscription throughout some platforms, like Amazon and Roku.

That makes it tough for customers to apprehend which model of HBO they can get and the place it will work.

That widespread mission is made worse by way of the reality that WarnerMedia has now not but been in a position to ink offers for HBO Max with the two pinnacle streaming media platform vendors in the U.S.: Amazon and Roku, which manage 70% of the market. That potential shoppers who have heard of the new provider won’t be capable to locate the app on these devices.

Stankey addressed this hassle these days when talking to investors.

“We’ve tried many times to make HBO Max handy to all clients the usage of Amazon Fire devices, inclusive of these clients that have bought HBO by using Amazon,” he said. “Unfortunately, Amazon has taken an strategy of treating HBO Max and its clients in another way than how they’ve chosen to deal with different services, and their customers.”

The comments, which fantastically ignore over any point out of Roku, come solely days earlier than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is set to testify earlier than the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, alongside with CEOs from Apple, Google and Facebook, as phase of the Committee’s ongoing investigation of attainable anti-competitive practices in the digital marketplace.

One vicinity of difficulty for the Committee is the strength and manipulate the tech groups have over their digital marketplaces, the place they set terms, ban apps and offerings from distribution, and take commissions from agencies that compete with their own.

AT&T’s difficulty with Amazon, in this case, has to do with how it needs to distribute HBO Max throughout the media platforms. With its shift in strategy, AT&T targets to provide buyers a standalone app, comparable to Netflix — as it does now on Apple TV and Android TV. But Amazon and Roku choose to additionally promote subscriptions to HBO Max like they presently do for HBO thru the Amazon Prime Video Channels platform and Roku’s Premium Subscription platform on The Roku Channel.

With Roku’s funding in The Roku Channel it’s been distancing itself from being the impartial platform it once was, as it’s now prompted to make offers that gain its very own desires round The Roku Channel’s subscription marketplace, the equal as different non-neutral players, like Amazon. This is no longer a hassle special to HBO Max, either. NBCU’s new streaming provider Peacock additionally failed to provide Roku and Fire TV guide at launch, for comparable reasons. Unfortunately, the purchaser is the one who subsequently loses right here as tech giants grapple over no longer solely the dollars, however who will personal the client relationship in the lengthy run.

Without distribution, AT&T’s WarnerMedia should be challenged to meet its desires for HBO Max.

The company, however, claims it’s nevertheless on tune for 50-55 million HBO Max subscribers in the U.S by way of 2025. As section of this strategy, WarnerMedia additionally plans to launch HBO Max internationally and provide a lower-cost, as-supported model of the provider someday subsequent year.