HBO Max And HBO Rise To 76.8M Global Subscribers

HBO and HBO Max hit 76.8 million global subscribers at the end of March. This marked an increase of 3 million since the end of 2021. AT&T
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disclosed these numbers for the services as well as numbers for domestic subscribers which reached 48.6 million as of March 31. This was a 1.8 million increase since the end of 2021.

Warner Bros. Discovery
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owns the HBO brands since April 8, 2022, and the divestment of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with Discovery, Inc.

“David [Zaslav, Chief Executive Officer and President of Warner Bros. Discovery,] inherits an organization with one of the best global portfolios of beloved intellectual property, a team with unparalleled talent and one of the few truly global direct-to-consumer players, as evidenced by the continued growth in HBO Max and HBO subscribers. We’re excited about the potential for continued HBO Max growth as the service launches in more new territories,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said. “[Warner Bros. Discovery] is well placed to lead the transformation we’re seeing unfold across the media and entertainment landscape.”

Outside of subscribership, ad revenue fell 3% to $1.7 billion. WarnerMedia’s quarterly theatrical, TV content and games licensing revenue rose 9% to $3.5 billion. Direct to consumer revenue also rose from $1.9 billion to $2.2 billion.

HBO and HBO Max’s subscriber increase differs from recent Netflix
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trends. Netflix reported that the streamer lost 200,000 subscribers during the first three months of the year compared to the final quarter of 2021. With so many streaming options, many subscribers have to pick and choose between streaming options. Fandom’s recent State of Streaming report found that 78% of surveyed customers have considered canceling a service that they are not actively using and had an overall finding that users were tapped out on new streaming services and preferred bundled content.

While some streamers may be pushed into customer retention over subscriber expansion, this hasn’t happened with HBO and HBO Max as of yet.

Warner Bros. Discovery also announced that they would be shutting down their CNN+ streaming service. “In a complex streaming market, consumers want simplicity and an all-in service, which provides a better experience and more value than stand-alone offerings,” said Chris Licht, the incoming CEO of CNN, in a statement.

This fits in line with past comments by Zaslav about getting the companies’ streamers, which include Discovery+ and HBO Max, under the same umbrella. This strategy may mean even more HBO Max subscribers in the future.