AT&T chief defends HBO Max after Christopher Nolan calls it the ‘worst’

AT&T Inc. Chief Executive John Stankey on Tuesday defended the company’s industry-shaking decision to put Warner Bros.’ entire 17-film slate on the streaming service HBO Max next year, saying it “needed to try something different” to respond to the pandemic. “But I think ultimately rational parties will step back and look at this and say giving theater owners a predictable release of content over the next several months that they can plan around and start to work their business around is a good thing for them.” The new film strategy is also a way for AT&T and WarnerMedia to boost HBO Max with a lineup of premium, exclusive content. The number of hours people engaged with the service is up by more than one-third in the last 30 days, thanks to programming such as HBO’s “The Undoing” and the Max original “The Flight Attendant.” “That’s an incredible pace by traditional standards of people authenticating and using the product and being part of it,” Stankey said. Movie theater giant AMC Entertainment blasted WarnerMedia’s HBO Max decision last week, saying the company clearly intended to sacrifice studio profits to “subsidize its HBO Max start up.” But Stankey said the strategy is ultimately to give consumers choice over how to watch entertainment.