More AT&T news story today / Streaming HBO Max

[bjf]

More ATT news today about the HBO Max Streaming.

With HBO Max, AT&T is launching a streaming service that 'a lot of people said couldn't be done' - CNN

 

[ncted]

The question is, did Netflix become HBO before HBO became Netflix? Are we there yet?

 

[coopertwister]

Any 4k offerings in the HBO MAX? I am mean if it is the MAX and at that price point it should have a ton of 4k with HDR Dolby Vision and Atmos.

 

[VictoriaFTA]

How is it that such a large company can have such an incompetent marketing department? Why are there going to be so many different HBO brand names now delivering the same content? HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now, HBO Max. It's DirecTV, DirecTV Now, AT&T TV all over again. What a mess.

Just call the linear, live channel on dish/cable/Internet streaming "HBO" and scrap the HBO Go and HBO Now app & brands entirely.

Then call the lone remaining HBO "on demand" Netflix-style streaming service that comes with the other WarnerMedia content HBO Max.

Then give everyone who subscribes to HBO through their cable/sat company an HBO Max login.

AT&T needs to fire their marketing department and just hire me instead. Do you know why Netflix is a household name all over the world with 154 million subscribers? BECAUSE IT'S JUST FRIGGIN' Netflix.

There's no Netflix Now, Netflix Go, Netflix Max, Netflix On Demand, Netflix TV...

 

[bjf]

It's going to crash and burn. The epic level of ineptitude by AT&T has already doomed it.

Wonder if it will even last 4 years like sony's streaming failure PS Vue.

bjf

 

[NashGuy]

How is it that such a large company can have such an incompetent marketing department? Why are there going to be so many different HBO brand names now delivering the same content? HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now, HBO Max. It's DirecTV, DirecTV Now, AT&T TV all over again. What a mess.

Just call the linear, live channel on dish/cable/Internet streaming "HBO" and scrap the HBO Go and HBO Now app & brands entirely.

Then call the lone remaining HBO "on demand" Netflix-style streaming service that comes with the other WarnerMedia content HBO Max.

Then give everyone who subscribes to HBO through their cable/sat company an HBO Max login.

AT&T needs to fire their marketing department and just hire me instead. Do you know why Netflix is a household name all over the world with 154 million subscribers? BECAUSE IT'S JUST FRIGGIN' Netflix.

There's no Netflix Now, Netflix Go, Netflix Max, Netflix On Demand, Netflix TV...

I generally agree with what you're saying and I do think that's ultimately where AT&T wants to take it: one HBO service that they sell, called HBO Max, which can be accessed through a single app, called HBO Max. "HBO" will live on simply as a premium brand that exists as a subset within the broader HBO Max, as well as the name of the original HBO live linear channel, which will be available to all HBO Max subscribers.

The problem in the near term for AT&T is that they have all these existing distribution contracts in place with various distributors -- Comcast, Charter, Verizon, Cox, Altice, Amazon, Apple, Google, Roku. And those contracts are either for the original HBO service (which comes with the HBO Go app) or for the standalone streaming HBO Now service. And the customers served through those various distributors account for about 25 out of HBO's current 35 million US subscribers. So they can't just pull the rug out from under them. AT&T wants to get all those distributors on board to seamlessly transition over to distributing HBO Max instead of HBO/HBO Now but, as I say, that involves renegotiating current contracts and that, as always, comes down to $$$.

Netflix didn't have the challenge of trying to transition from a traditional cable network into a standalone streaming service. They simply started out that way.

 

[TheRatPatrol]

With so many different ways to access HBO programming, do you think theres still a need for the multiple linear HBO and Cinemax channels?

 

[NashGuy]

With so many different ways to access HBO programming, do you think theres still a need for the multiple linear HBO and Cinemax channels?

No. I still believe that the existing library of Cinemax original series will become available as part of the permanent HBO Max on-demand library and that Cinemax will simply cease to exist. (The WSJ, and possibly others, have reported that will be the case, although AT&T has not said.) Maybe Cinemax dies as soon as HBO Max launches or maybe it takes a little while longer, but I don't really see how Cinemax fits into the future of AT&T-owned video services, which will be completely centered around HBO Max. (And, in fact, I think they were likely thinking that this might be Cinemax's fate at the point when they decided on the name HBO Max, which obviously sounds like a combination of HBO and Cinemax.)

But getting to your specific Q about all the various linear channels, nah, as HBO morphs into HBO Max, where the emphasis is on on-demand, I suspect we'll see some of those HBO linear channels die. I think AT&T is already hinting at this with their AT&T TV Now service. It offers both HBO and Cinemax but only carries four of their linear channels: HBO, HBO Family, HBO Latino, and Cinemax. No HBO Signature, HBO Comedy, MoreMax, 5StarMax, etc.

And really, why should they? As we shift to an on-demand world, the linear channels associated with those on-demand libraries really just serve as branding opportunities, curated playlists that allow the company to showcase the content that they're especially proud of at the moment. Those live linear channels encourage sampling by viewers; they're an easy way for viewers to discover new things to watch that they might not have clicked on inside the on-demand library. (How often have you stumbled on a show or movie in a linear channel and gotten sucked into it, even though you had no intention of originally watching?) But there's really no point in having so many of them. If you look at the four channels that AT&T TV Now offers, they're the ones that are the most critical, and differentiated from each other, in defining the HBO and Cinemax brands. If I'm right that Cinemax dies, perhaps the original Cinemax linear channels will simply be renamed to "HBO Cinema" or "HBO Movies" or "HBO Hollywood" and live on as a channel devoted to 24/7 uncut theatrically-released films.