Streaming services have had several turmoil in recent days following it was revealed that Netflix, giant and pioneer of this industry, lost 200,000 subscribers in the last quarter, the first loss of users in ten years. Although the company seems to be in its worst moment since, in addition, it reported a 35% drop in the stock market a few hours following the news was made public, one of its staunchest competitors seems to be enjoying these events: HBO Max.
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Now, to get away from Netflix and the most recent change in its service highly criticized by users, the CEO of AT&T -current owner of WarnerMedia and, therefore, of the streaming platform- John Stankey revealed that in his company they are not worried by the shared accounts and passwords and that, on the contrary, it is something that they had already contemplated.
The statement came at a call with the company’s investors organized this week. “We thought regarding how we built the product and that we gave customers enough flexibility, although we don’t want to see rampant abuse (…) The user that has terms and conditions of how they can and cannot use the service, and we have enforced it,” Stankey mentioned in said conversation according to reports Deadline.
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The executive indicated that account and password management is one of the most important processes to ensure long-term business sustainability. Therefore, although it is something that may influence the future, the interest of HBO Max right now is to grow its presence in the market, establishing criteria and limits from the beginning since it is a double-edged sword.
Of course, what matters most are the results, they seem to have proved HBO Max right: AT&T reported that the streaming service added 3 million subscribers during the first quarter of 2022 and already exceeds 76.8 million users worldwide. Revenue from platform subscriptions reached 4,000 million dollars while from content it reached 3,100 million dollars.
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“We are excited regarding HBO Max’s continued growth potential as the service launches in more territories … we are excited to continue to see its success and the value it creates as one of the world’s leading media companies.” ”Stankey noted.
Interestingly, HBO Max’s policies that provide flexibility and also limit users to manage and share their accounts and passwords are quite similar to those of other streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix itself, but AT&T and WarnerMedia has served them better.
