AT&T's large base of direct customer relationships, per comments at Mipcom by WarnerMedia chairman Bob Greenblatt, who is also heading the media giant's direct-to-consumer operations.WarnerMedia plans to unveil more details about its go-to-market strategy at an investor event on October 29 — when we could learn more concretely about the launch date, content, distribution, and pricing of the service. Across its offerings, AT&T has about 159.7 million wireless customers, 22.
AT&T will offer promotional deals to convert customers in other divisions into HBO Max subscribers — exclusive access to that ecosystem could be a valuable edge in the SVOD wars. Greenblatt said that AT&T will offer "incentives for customers to bring them to the service right away." Such incentives could include promotional content offers to lure customers into AT&T's ecosystem: For example, AT&T has previously offered to customers who signed up for its unlimited wireless plan — but customers who don't have pay-TV service through AT&T need to access HBO by signing up for a free DirecTV Now account.
That strategy should help the service attract new subs to complement the high number of existing HBO subscribers we expect it to convert, given that the new service will only cost $1 or $2 more. HBO has about 140 million subscribers worldwide, mostly through pay-TV services, but it also has about 8 million direct-to-consumer subscribers on its standalone SVOD.
AT&T might also bring high-quality content from HBO Max to its skinny bundle in an attempt to both boost its TV business and drive broader interest in the SVOD. Earlier this year, WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey suggested that AT&T would merge HBO Max into the platform for its streaming skinny bundle offering, DirecTV Now, which was AT&T could rejuvenate its TV businesses somewhat by injecting it with high-quality content.
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