HBO MAX MINIMAL
Marketing, pricing fouled launch: analyst
Less than a week has passed since the launch of AT&T’s new streaming service, HBO Max, and it’ s already being written off as a disappointment.
“HBO Max isn’t a game-changer for AT&T,” Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Jayant wrote in a report this week blasting the telecom company for major marketing missteps, including selling the new service for the same price as its popular HBO cable network.
AT&T launched HBO Max on May 27 as its answer to streaming giants Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. The $14.99-amonth service includes original content as well as films and shows from AT&T’s massive Warner-Media entertainment division, including HBO, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies.
But much to the dismay of analysts, AT&T has been unable to get its new streaming service on platforms like Roku and Amazon Fire, which make up more than two-thirds of the US streaming market. HBO Max also only came to ink a deal with Comcast — the country’s largest cable operator — after its release.
Evercore’s Jayant said the “difficulty” for distributors lies in the fact that AT&T offers HBO for the same price as HBO Max, which has roughly double the content.
Because both services cost the same, distributors feel it “devalues” the product they currently sell — namely HBO. He explained that distributors want AT&T to lower the price of HBO or allow customers to upgrade to HBO Max for free.
Separately, HBO Max has been taken to task for launching without some of the content the company had promised earlier in the year, including “The Dark Knight,” “13 Going on 30,” “The Matrix” and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.”
Jayant unfavorably compared AT&T’s handling of HBO Max with Disney’s new streaming service Disney+.
“HBO Max’s launch has thus far been notably less smooth than the launch of Disney+, due to a variety of factors, including confusing branding, uncertainty about how to get the product, and limitations on how consumers can actually watch the product, particularly on television,” he said, before turning to the positive.
“With that said, we believe HBO Max is a good product, with a strong content lineup, a solid[ but not particularly distinctive] user interface, and the backing of a highly regarded brand.”