AT&T CEO Throws Shade at Netflix Price Hike, Predicts HBO Max Will Recoup Amazon Losses

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAT&T CEO John Stankey told investors he expects HBO Max to recoup all of the subscribers lost last fall after WarnerMedia pulled HBO from the Amazon Prime Video Channels marketplace in September amid ongoing agita in the TV industry about the fees Amazon takes for facilitating sales of subscription TV services.During AT&T’s hourlong fourth-quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, Stankey also noted that market conditions have spurred price hikes by HBO Max rivals, which means that HBO Max is not the most expensive of the major domestic players at present.

Stankey didn’t mention Netflix by name, but the inference was clear.Last October, AT&T reported that HBO and HBO Max lost about 1.8 million subscribers in the third quarter after the disengagement from Amazon in the previous month.

As WarnerMedia prepares for its spinoff with Discovery, the combined content firepower of the two companies should be compelling enough to consumers without needing the sales support from Amazon. “We felt it was the right decision,” Stankey said of withdrawing from Amazon. “I think it will even be more the right decision in a post-Discovery environment, as the offer only gets stronger that’s in the market and the content that’s available,” Stankey said. “At the end of the day, you want full control of your customers and I’m confident with the strength of the offer that will be in the market, those customers are all going to come back into the offer.

It may take a couple of quarters for that to happen. But there will eventually be a product out there that they are going to look at and say they want to be part of.