"My job is not to build another Netflix": John Stankey associates HBO to win the war in streaming

Since the completion of AT & T's acquisition of Time Warner on June 14 for $ 85 billion, the telecommunications titan's intentions regarding the jewel of its new premium, HBO, have aroused great curiosity. Wednesday, John Stankey, CEO. of AT & T's WarnerMedia division, four months old, pulled the curtain further in a discussion at the Vanity Fair'S New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles, where it revealed that AT & T was preparing for a battle in the streaming wars with a live streaming service to the consumer that will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Interviewed by New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin On the scene of the Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center, Stankey said the service would be "anchored by HBO as the main brand" and that "around HBO will come a large library of additional content from WarnerMedia," which has chains such as TBS. , TNT and Cartoon Network, in addition to the Warner Bros. Film Library. "The selected content" of third-party partners will complement the service, he said, refusing to indicate the cost of a subscription. The product will squarely put AT & T in competition with an increasing number of streaming software packages, which Netflix and Hulu are flocking to, via the so-called "Disneyflix" that is expected to hit the market after Disney finalizes the game. acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

AT & T's bet is that HBO, which is at the forefront of the television age, will appeal to viewers who do not have access to the channel through a traditional cable offering that includes HBO as a premium supplement. But Stankey also said that in the current era of mega-scales, HBO is not enough. "I think HBO is a very important brand, a very important property for us and a very unique product in terms of how to win the mind and the spirit of customers, and we will continue to invest in that, "he said. "I think you'll see a stronger HBO as this product evolves. However, I do not think that HBO, as a distinct brand, satisfies the needs of the public and the customers we ultimately want to address. "Mr. Stankey said that HBO would continue to be offered separately from the scheduled streaming service. but he did not bite at the hook when Sorkin asked him how much AT & T was planning to increase the HBO programming budget by $ 2.5 billion compared to the much larger sum than Netflix pays for original programs. "My job is not to build another Netflix," he said, "our job is to create a compelling content offering."

Stankey's announcement was the second great revelation of the morning streaming. Earlier, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman revealed the name of the $ 1 billion short – lived video company they 've prepared, until here called New TV. This will be called Quibi, which is a wand to "bite" and "bite". As Katzenberg explains, "you get up every morning, you leave your house and you take a TV. You communicate, collaborate and are currently watching 70 minutes of short content. . . . We are this new form of fast bites. "