Blog: Warner Media

An unprecedented year for the entertainment industry has now taken yet another decisive turn. Last Thursday Warner Media’s CEO Jason Kilar announced that all Warner Bros’ 2021 releases will be available to stream exclusively on its direct-to-consumer (D2C) service HBO Max on the same day they have their box office premiers.

On Tuesday, AT&T subsidiary Warner Media announced the launch date for its forthcoming D2C streaming video service HBO Max. On May 27 th HBO Max will launch into a world radically different from the one envisaged at the HBO Max debut event held in October 2019.

On Wednesday  AT&T announced  that Jason Kilar will become the new CEO of Warner Media on May 1 st  2020. The choice of Kilar speaks volumes about how the US communications major is approaching the forthcoming challenge at the heart of its Warner Media subsidiary – the May domestic launch of HBO Max, its forthcoming direct-to-consumer (D2C) service.

Disney claims unexpected traffic on its newly-launched service was at fault for the buffering and technical issues of Disney+’s launch Tuesday . The issues highlight just how difficult it is transitioning from a media company to a tech player, with technical glitches an enormous issue for digital-native subscribers.

Revenue remains rights holder’s priority qualifier for allocating rights. However, with an impending recession, we are likely nearing an inflection point whereby rights holders may start to look towards prioritising reach over revenue.

May 2019 saw the controversial final episode of HBO’s flagship scripted drama series, Game of Thrones. With the final season alone taking up an estimated quarter of HBO’s entire original content budget, Warner Media’s premium TV network invested heavily in transforming a niche TV show into the flagship title for the whole network.

On Wednesday night the Walt Disney Company reported quarterly earnings for its second fiscal quarter ending March 31st 2019, beating analyst estimates with a 3% increase in year-on-year (YoY) quarterly revenue.

Amid all the excitement in the media world around the 2019 launches of direct-to-consumer services from such illustrious content producers as Disney and Warner Media, one clear question remains unanswered - will the public pay for these additional subscription video on demand (SVOD) services? The general assumption is that the seemingly relentless rise of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video make continued subscription growth across the SVOD sector an inevitability.

The revelation that Warner Media (previously Time Warner, and acquired by AT&T in June 2018) has negotiated a clause in its 2019 licensing agreement with Netflix for ageing sitcom Friends highlights the existential challenge facing TV players in the streaming era.

Warner Bro’s long awaited DC Universe subscription video on demand (SVOD) service is nearing its grand unveiling, having now decided upon a pricing plan. This is the latest of a long list of examples where networks and operators have realised the growing consumer shift from traditional pay-TV to online streaming.