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Prepare for the war continuously.
AT & T announced on Wednesday its intention to unveil a digital video service showcasing WarnerMedia's movies and TV shows by the end of next year, placing it in direct competition with competitors such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon.
"We are committed to launching a compelling and competitive product that will complement our existing businesses and help us expand our reach by offering a new entertainment choice with WarnerMedia's collection of WarnerMedia movies, TV shows, libraries, documentaries and animations. loved by consumers around the world, "said John Stankey, who oversees WarnerMedia, in a statement.
This means that Warner's blockbuster films such as the Harry Potter franchise and "Wonder Woman" could appear on service alongside TV shows like "Friends" and HBO hits like "Game of Thrones."
Mr. Stankey appeared Wednesday at a conference organized by the Vanity Fair in Los Angeles, but did not provide details on the cost of the service, his name or the date on which it will be available.
"We will bring a new approach to the media and entertainment industry for consumers, content creators, distributors and advertisers," Randall L. Stephenson, AT & T President and CEO, said at the time. .
Streaming has become a congested area, while the once-vibrant television sector has suffered a decline in the number of cable and satellite customers. Netflix, a low-cost alternative, has grown dramatically, and its content ownership and distribution model has appealed to Wall Street. Its stock has jumped over 80% in the last year.
WarnerMedia already licenses its film and entertainment licenses to other streaming companies, but it will have to give up these revenues as soon as it releases this content exclusively for its own service. "Friends", for example, a property of WarnerMedia, is licensed to Netflix under a contract that will expire in a few years.
In an interview that followed his appearance, Mr. Stankey estimated that a quarter of the WarnerMedia library licensed to other streaming services must be renewed each year.
WarnerMedia already has several streaming products. Its best known is HBO Now, introduced in 2015 and now has more than five million customers. Last month, WarnerMedia began selling a video subscription service featuring feature films and character-based programming from the DC Comics universe, another Warner property, which is heavily commercialized. on several studios in Hollywood.
Mr. Stankey described the new service as a "shop collection", with HBO as the "main tenant".
As part of the introduction, HBO will significantly increase its programming, Stankey said. But HBO itself will remain focused on high-end entertainment and will not become a warehouse for all of Warner's content, as some feared.
"We need hours a day," Stankey told a news conference. Mayor's meeting with HBO employees this summer, referring to the time spent by viewers watching HBO programs. "It's not hours per week, nor hours per month. We need several hours a day. You are in competition with devices placed in the hands of your interlocutors who hold their attention every 15 minutes. "
Later in this meeting, he stated that HBO needed to "build this brand so that it is big enough to do it."
Now, it seems that the streaming service would look more like an upscale shopping mall, with HBO bringing in new customers.
"HBO is a very important brand, a very important property for us," he said at the conference. "However, I do not think that HBO, as an independent brand, meets the needs of the broad audience and the customers we want to respond to."
While refusing to say how much the next service would cost, Stankey said it would be more than HBO Now, which costs $ 15 a month. In addition to HBO and some of Warner Bros.'s movies, there will likely be shows from his television library. This does not include CNN.
Notably, the AT & T service will coincide with a new offering from Walt Disney, which also plans to launch a streaming product next year.
Disney beat Comcast in a fierce fight for the majority of 21st Century Fox, attempting to conquer the streaming market by sourcing valuable content. In addition to a new streaming service for young audiences, Disney plans to invest more in Hulu, which it will control after foreign regulatory approval of its contract with 21st Century Fox, as well as ESPN +, a sports service including ESPN flagship network.
"Disney does not have a paid paying service, as we do with HBO," said Stankey. "We are also AT & T. We already have tens of millions of direct customer relationships. "
Comparing AT & T's approach to Disney, he added, "What's important to understand is that our offer is unified – we do not expect people to buy three different pieces."
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