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AT&T Wants To Overhaul HBO, Says It Isn't Profitable Enough (arstechnica.com)
AT&T recently acquired HBO, as part of the Time Warner acquisition, "and it is already considering an overhaul that would see HBO produce more video that can compete for the attention of smartphone users," reports Ars Technica. "AT&T wants to boost revenue both in advertising and subscriptions, even if that means upending HBO's longtime strategy of producing a relatively small number of high-quality shows."
At a recent corporate town hall meeting, John Stankey, the longtime AT&T executive and new head of Warner Media, laid out the challenges and opportunities he saw for the network to around 150 employees. He said, in part: "It's going to be a tough year. It's going to be a lot of work to alter and change direction a little bit. [...] You will work very hard, and this next year will -- my wife hates it when I say this -- feel like childbirth... You'll look back on it and be very fond of it, but it's not going to feel great while you're in the middle of it. She says, 'What do you know about this?' I just observe, 'Honey. We love our kids.'" Audio of the meeting was obtained by The New York Times. From the report: The talk, held at HBO headquarters in New York City, was hosted by HBO CEO Richard Plepler. HBO must compete with smartphones for people's attention, Stankey said in this exchange with Plepler: "We need hours a day," Mr. Stankey said, referring to the time viewers spend watching HBO programs. "It's not hours a week, and it's not hours a month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in people's hands that capture their attention every 15 minutes." Continuing the theme, he added: "I want more hours of engagement. Why are more hours of engagement important? Because you get more data and information about a customer that then allows you to do things like monetize through alternate models of advertising as well as subscriptions, which I think is very important to play in tomorrow's world."
At a recent corporate town hall meeting, John Stankey, the longtime AT&T executive and new head of Warner Media, laid out the challenges and opportunities he saw for the network to around 150 employees. He said, in part: "It's going to be a tough year. It's going to be a lot of work to alter and change direction a little bit. [...] You will work very hard, and this next year will -- my wife hates it when I say this -- feel like childbirth... You'll look back on it and be very fond of it, but it's not going to feel great while you're in the middle of it. She says, 'What do you know about this?' I just observe, 'Honey. We love our kids.'" Audio of the meeting was obtained by The New York Times. From the report: The talk, held at HBO headquarters in New York City, was hosted by HBO CEO Richard Plepler. HBO must compete with smartphones for people's attention, Stankey said in this exchange with Plepler: "We need hours a day," Mr. Stankey said, referring to the time viewers spend watching HBO programs. "It's not hours a week, and it's not hours a month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in people's hands that capture their attention every 15 minutes." Continuing the theme, he added: "I want more hours of engagement. Why are more hours of engagement important? Because you get more data and information about a customer that then allows you to do things like monetize through alternate models of advertising as well as subscriptions, which I think is very important to play in tomorrow's world."
> "and it is already considering an overhaul that would see HBO produce more video that can compete for the attention of smartphone users, even if that means upending HBO's longtime strategy of producing a relatively small number of high-quality shows."
Well, I guess you can kiss HBO goodbye, then. Because that is the ONLY thing that makes it worth having; things like Westworld, Sopranos, Oz, Game of Thrones, Room 104, and such. PLENTY of other networks for the type of lower quality, high quantity stuff.
If you want to get rid of something, please make it Bill Maher.
In the HBO Go app (the one you can use to subscribe to HBO a month at a time), they just dropped the whole "late night" (read: Soft Porn) section. But it's hardly a loss as for some time now they had let updates to that area languish to almost nothing. I have to imagine that subscribers are falling off in part because of that...
What happened to the HBO of old that had sex positive and fun programming like "Real Sex"? Seems like everyone wants to be Netflix now with hot original dramatic shows, while abandoning aspects that make each service unique and provide extra value.
The funny thing is that personally I only just started subscribing to HBO, for Game of Thrones, then Silicon Valley, then Westworld. But once I finish up those new seasons I'll probably let the subscription go again as not much of the other content really grabs me. Some more high-end adult content produced with some regularity might help convince me to stay...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
uploading is just for those evil pirates and server admins. good little consumers only CONSUME pre approved content.
you're not being a good little consumer. a note has been made in your account.
This was an internal employee town hall meeting. Someone saw the writing on the wall, recorded the meeting and provided it to the press to see if they can get enough momentum to turn the tide against this change.
They'll fail of course, but it's a noble effort nonetheless.
Wallstreet doesn't care about being profitable. It's all about being more profitable (or less unprofitable) than last quarter so that the stock price will go up.
So, all the good talent is leaving for a new internet-only production company that will take most of HBO's market share? Cool.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Netflix has to be just loving this. AT&T will turn one of the only remaining traditional TV stations into complete and utter shit. Well, at least it will have plenty of company. Meanwhile watch how subscribers run for the hills as the price goes up and the quality goes down.
AT&T has always been run as a monopoly. They haven't the faintest idea about customer service and now they are going to be in for a very rude awakening. RIP HBO.
Seriously, does anyone actually watch any SINGLE channel for hours a day? And of those, how many are watching hours a day of a single channel on a PHONE? Why in the world would anyone think that they're somehow able to make that the slightest bit enjoyable in any way? Has Stankey actually been a human being in America for very long, because any human being in America would quickly realize that nobody wants to stare at a cell phone for hours a day to watch a single channel. Nobody. And then to top it off, he goes right into collecting customer data to monetize it in the form of advertising and subscriptions-seriously, is the guy from another planet? How could that possibly be a good idea for any customer?
Their service is great where they have competition. Speedtest.net just now showed 679 Mbps down and 776Mbps up on my advertised gigabit ($70/month) from AT&T in a neighborhood with multiple providers offering >100Mbps service
I suffered for many years in rural California on dial up (24.4 on a good day) with a fiber optic backbone line running right under my very street. I tried every trick I could with satellite being my only alternative option. Eventually a two way microwave on the roof solution was affordable, but terrible compared to what people can get in town in both price and bandwidth. My neighbors didn't care. We were ten miles from a medium city.
People don't get this. I used to be a Republican because I advocated for small government exactly to do away with this kind of cronyism. Let the free market do it. Only to learn that the Republicans only pay lip service to small government ideals, then do the same as the Democrats but less efficiently and with even more pork. Those who vote Democrat in my circle do it largely with the good intention that a properly managed government project helps the most people with the least resources (without that capitalist fat). Both votes bring us to the same sick place. Government is out of control and in collusion with big business. There is no way to fix this by voting. We are locked in a two party system and both are corrupt to the point of being evil. In California I felt like being a Republican was pissing in the wind. Now with Trump running the show I've registered with no party affiliation.
Now I live in a small German town and can have 100 down 20 up for 50 Euro a month no strings, no caps. My neighbors don't care what political party I support and allow me to live without fear of expressing my small government conservative political beliefs (as long as I don't go full Nazi - who were left leaning big government socialists). But I miss California.
"The government that governs least, governs best." "Government is a necessary evil." "We get the government we deserve." "We have a republic, madam, if you can keep it!" Well, we the people lost it. We now have a big crony plutocracy ran as a police state. Perhaps we deserve it because of our own stupidity, complacency and arrogance. Oh, crappy Internet for high $ to boot. Thanks Al Gore!