What you need to know
- HBO Max and HBO have added 3 million subscribers in the first three months of 2022.
- Netflix recently announced a loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter.
At a time when Netflix seems unable to keep the subscribers that it already has, the competition is having no such problems. HBO Max and HBO now have 76.8 million global subscribers, adding three million of those in the last three months.
Those numbers are even better than they first appear, too. While Netflix recently reported losing 200,000 subscribers in the same quarter, AT&T announced that its HBO platforms gained almost 13 million subscribers year on year.
In terms of how that all equates to cold hard cash, Variety reports that HBO Max had helped prop up WarnerMedia as a whole prior to AT&T's divesture.
WarnerMedia revenue for the first quarter was $8.7 billion, up 2.5% versus the year-ago quarter, driven by higher subscription revenues (up 4.4% to $4 billion, primarily thanks to HBO Max) and higher content and other revenues. Ad revenue was $1.7 billion, down 3% year over year due to a decline in linear TV audiences and "tough comparisons" to the prior-year political environment, partially offset by higher sports.
Back to HBO Max and HBO, monthly domestic subscriber revenue per customer was $11.24, an increase from $11.15 in the prior quarter. It isn't all good news, though — that number was actually a reduction on the $11.72 seen from Q1 2021.
While Netflix and HBO Max might offer different price tiers and catalogs, the news is perhaps another pointer as to why the former is keen to bring an ad-supported offering into the mix. With stiff competition from the cheaper Apple TV+ and Disney+ also to be noted, Netflix's reduction in subscribers is something it will want to arrest sooner rather than later.
