John Stankey and Brian Roberts Grapple With Finicky Funnels (Column)
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business EditorJohn Stankey and Brian Roberts are wrestling with different sides of the same problems.For Big Media, the fourth-quarter earnings revelations so far have reinforced predictions that 2022 is the year the honeymoon ends for the promise of new streaming ventures.
Now it’s entrenching time. The streaming wars shift to a month-by-month, country-by-country battle to lure subscribers at a cost and monthly fee that makes quarterly ARPU numbers sing.This is no easy feat, no matter how big your international footprint or IP vault may be.
AT&T and Comcast in their own ways are grappling with the limits of the subscriber funnel-theory that drove so much investor-conference chatter just a few years ago.
AT&T’s Stankey sounded like a CEO who was ready to see the back of the WarnerMedia assets soon after a rocky three-and-a-half years in the telco’s tent.
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