The Hollywood Reporter - 06.11.2019

Behind the Headlines

The Report

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 20 NOVEMBER 6, 2019

RODIN ECKENROTH/GETTY IMAGES

off those concerns in an October
interview with THR, noting that
testing in the Netherlands —
where Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD
and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
have been top-streamed series —
“shows that the diversity of appeal
that we’ve hoped for is starting to
take shape.”
Brand also is at the forefront of
WarnerMedia’s plans to market
HBO Max, which will offer 10,000
hours of programming, including
the full HBO lineup, Friends, films
like The Lord of the Rings and origi-
nals such as a Gossip Girl reboot.
As executives ramp up their
efforts to reach $1 billion in prof-
its and between 75 million and
90 million subscribers globally by
2025 (including 50 million in the

U.S.), the $15-a-month service also

has the advantage of being the

same price as HBO. The 10 million

people who currently subscribe

to HBO via WarnerMedia par-

ent AT&T will be grandfathered

into HBO Max, and the company

is in talks with pay TV provid-

ers about offering

a premium to woo

HBO’s remaining

24 million subscrib-

ers. “I look at it as a

degree of an IQ test,”

WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey

told investors Oct. 29, question-

ing the logic of a subscriber who

wouldn’t opt into twice the con-

tent as HBO “for the same price.”

But LightShed Partners analyst

Rich Greenfield notes, “HBO as

we have known it will not exist

going forward,” as the result of

the HBO Max launch, which could

risk diluting the brand.

Apple and NBCUniversal have

of Peacock to 55 million Comcast

cable and Sky customers, who

could immediately have free

access to the service’s 15,000-plus

hours of programming, including

The Office and new shows from

Sam Esmail and Mike Schur.

But none of these services will

build membership bases in isola-

tion, and they must contend with

a market dominated by Netflix,

which has 158 million global sub-

scribers, as well as Amazon Prime

and Hulu. Digital TV Research

forecasts that in the next five

years, the number of gross video

subs worldwide will increase to

970 million. Each new entrant

will now fight for a piece of that

pie. As Stankey noted from the

stage of WarnerMedia’s HBO Max

reveal: “In the era of Amazon,

Apple, Google and Netflix, scale is

no longer defined by distribution

to one-fourth of U.S. consumers.

It’s a global game.”

yet to publicly set subscriber goals

for their offerings, though each

company expects to have built-in

a membership base. For Apple, its

TV+ is a perk designed to entice

people to buy new devices. With

a user base of 1.4 billion — and

900 million iPhones on the

market — the $5-a-month service

has the potential to gain traction

among existing Apple customers.

But, says Schaeffler, “people don’t

know Apple TV+ for its content,” so

to entice them to give the service a

try, the tech giant is offering a year

free to customers who upgrade

qualifying Apple devices. It’s a

move that Barclays analyst Tim

Long estimates could translate

into “well over 100 million sub-

scribers a year from now.” Apple

TV+ also is looking to become a

hub for access to other streamers,

a strategy Amazon has pursued.

NBCU, meanwhile, is expected

to offer an ad-supported version

How much have you heard of ...

HBO Max trails both services as most U.S. adults say they subscribe to only one or two streamers, a new survey finds

Disney+ Enjoys Higher Awareness Than Apple TV+ (So Far)

THR/Morning Consult Poll

18-29 30-44 45-54 55-64 65+

How many streaming services

do you subscribe to?

Would you be more or less likely to buy a streaming service if it included a discounted ad-supported option?

1-2 SERVICES

MUCH MORE LIKELY TO PURCHASE SOMEWHAT MORE LIKELY TO PURCHASE NOT VERY LIKELY TO PURCHASE NOT AT ALL LIKELY TO PURCHASE

A LOT

26% 25%

17% 15% 17%

29%

18% 20%

7%

25%

21%

27%

3-4 SERVICES 5-6 SERVICES SOME NOT MUCH NOTHING AT ALL

20%

20%

20%

10%

10%

10%

40% 40%

30%

30%

30%

60% 60%

50% 50%

80%

70% 70%

Disney+ Apple

TV+

HBO

Max

Disney+ Apple

TV+

HBO

Max

Disney+ Apple

TV+

HBO

Max

Disney+ Apple

TV+

HBO

Max

Source: THR/Morning Consult poll conducted among a nationally representative sample of 2,329 adults Oct. 24-28; percentages may not add up to 100.

About 63 percent of U.S.

adults of all ages say

they subscribe to one or

two streaming offerings,

but that figure drops

to 5 percent for those

who say they subscribe

to five or six services.

Among U.S. adults of all ages, 44 percent have

heard “a lot” or “some” about Disney+, while

33 percent say the same about Apple TV+ and

25 percent recognize the HBO Max brand.

22%

30%

15% 15%

34%

18%

14% 15%

Stankey