The number of HBO Max subscribers increased after Warner Bros. ‘announcement that all 2021 films would be on the streaming service, new data show
HBO Max’s big bet on new movie releases appears to be showing signs of return, with nearly twice as many people adding subscriptions after it announced that its 2021 film list would debut on the service, according to Hub Entertainment Research.
In November, 7% of Americans who subscribed to a TV subscription added HBO Max, according to survey data that the Hub shared exclusively with TheWrap. That number soared to 13% in December – a trend that coincided with the Warner Bros. announcement. of all 17 films it had scheduled for release in theaters in 2021 would also be premiered on the new streaming service. The jump in new subscriptions also coincided with “Wonder Woman 1984” arriving at HBO Max on Christmas Day.
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(Via Hub Entertainment Research)
In addition, 19% of subscribers who added HBO Max in December said they did so primarily for watching movies – more than 500% over the previous month, when only 3% said that the films directed their decision.
Hub’s data, based on a monthly survey of 2,000 Americans, reinforces HBO’s subscriber data. AT&T CEO John Stankey in early December said that HBO Max had 12.6 million active users; at the end of the month, according to AT&T’s fourth quarter earnings report, that number increased to 17.17 million activated users.
Read too: Why HBO Max needs to ‘blink first’ in standoff with Roku
The clear conclusion, based on data from the Hub survey and earnings from HBO Max subscribers, is that pushing your main releases to streaming has worked. After all, the goal was to boost new subscriptions and, finally, put HBO Max in the upper echelon of streaming services. There is still a long way to go: Netflix, the industry leader, has 203 million global subscribers and Disney + had almost 95 million subscribers at the end of 2020.
There is also a financial point that cannot be ignored: WarnerMedia, according to Moffett analyst Craig Moffett, is projected to lose $ 1.2 billion in lost box office revenue by transferring new releases to HBO Max. In other words, the service is expected to generate huge subscriber earnings to help make up for the money it’s not getting from cinemas. Still, considering that HBO Max got off to an amazing start, with HBO customers confused about which HBO streaming service they should actually subscribe to, December data is trending in their favor.
There is another reason why the HBO bet can work: Churn. Every streaming executive is concerned not only with attracting new subscribers, but also with preventing them from canceling and maintaining monthly payments. By offering a steady diet of possible movie releases in 2021, HBO Max is giving users a good reason to keep their accounts month after month, Hub chief analyst Peter Fondulas told TheWrap.
“Our research [indicates] 30-40% of people are ‘serial routers’, in which they add a service, watch a series or event and abandon it right after, ”said Fondulas. “This is a way of [HBO Max] so people can wait for the next release, instead of canceling, just to subscribe again next month because there’s a very successful launch they want to see. “
He added: “This is a way to protect against this and help to convince people to keep the service, because there is a regular flow of new and interesting content coming out.”
