HBO and HBO Max finished the third quarter in September with 45.2 million U.S. subscribers, down 1.8 million from the 47.0 million recorded as of the end of the second quarter following its “strategic decision to remove the HBO subscription from Amazon Prime Channels,” WarnerMedia parent and telecom giant AT&T said Thursday.
Global HBO and HBO Max subscribers rose by 1.9 million to 69.4 million though from around 67.5 million as of the end of June. The company said the worldwide number rose “thanks to strong international and ad-supported subscriber growth,” which offset the user hit related to the Amazon decision. HBO Max launched in Latin America towards the end of the second quarter and also brought to market its advertising-supported service tier that month.
But HBO lost some 5 million of its subscribers through Amazon Prime Video’s channels platform overnight as of mid-September when it decided to accept a short-term hit for ensuring a direct relationship with consumers longer term. HBO immediately rolled out a special offer to entice those users back or bring in new subscribers.
The latest disclosures and commentary came as part of AT&T’s third-quarter earnings report, which also included latest financials for WarnerMedia.
WarnerMedia had in July raised its year-end 2021 guidance to 70 million to 73 million global HBO Max/HBO subscribers from 67 million to 70 million. On Thursday, the company said it expects to “reach the higher end of its end of year target.” It touted a “strong” fourth-quarter content slate at HBO Max, including Succession, Dune and The Matrix Resurrections.” That will help accelerate retail subscriber momentum in the current quarter, AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches said on an earnings conference call.
Management previously said most of the HBO Max subscriber growth in the second half of the year would come from international markets. Desroches on Thursday touted the streamer’s “incredible” success in Latin America so far and upcoming launches in Spain and the Nordics.
AT&T, led by CEO John Stankey, had said in March that HBO Max and HBO would reach between 120 million and 150 million on a combined basis by the end of 2025, up from a previous forecast of between 75 million and 90 million.
HBO Max has no plans to publicly release viewership data, top executives told THR ahead of the earnings report.
On Thursday’s earnings conference call, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar was asked about the precise subscriber impact of the Amazon exit. He didn’t detail any figures, but said that “we are very happy with the quarter” and the “very strategic decision,” which Walt Disney and Netflix have also taken, was right for the business. “We feel very good about the quarter,” he concluded.
LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield argued on Twitter that seeing total HBO and HBO Max…
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