Keeping ‘Friends’ for itself at HBO Max dings AT&T profit
Associated PressAs entertainment companies roll out new streaming services, they’re stocking them with the goodies from their own content archives, hoping that the loss of income today will mean more money rolling in from subscribers in the future. AT&T’s WarnerMedia is launching HBO Max in May and decided to keep “Friends” and “Big Bang Theory” for itself to bolster the service as its traditional TV customers melt away. The company said during its earnings call Wednesday that WarnerMedia lost $1.2 billion in revenue and $500 million in a key profit measure because it kept “Friends,” “Big Bang Theory” and “other popular shows” for itself instead of licensing them to other streaming companies. WarnerMedia’s revenue fell 3.3% to $8.92 billion in the fourth quarter, and the profit measure dropped 7% to $2.6 billion. “Obviously, this has an upfront cost for us, but we see this as an investment that makes HBO Max even stronger and will pay off over the long term,” said AT&T CFO John Stephens on the earnings call.
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