AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

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AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by tvroadmin » Wed Jan 30, 2019 8:21 am

AT&T's DirecTV Now Loses 267,000 Subscribers in Fourth Quarter
4:02 AM PST 1/30/2019 by Georg Szalai , Etan Vlessing

attceo.jpg
The telecom giant reports its latest financials and subscriber figures along with results at the former Time Warner businesses.

Telecom giant AT&T, led by chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, on Wednesday reported improved fourth-quarter financials for its WarnerMedia unit, led by Warner Bros., and said it lost 267,000 subscribers at its DirecTV Now streaming service in the period.

DirecTV Now dropped 267,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, ending 2018 with 1.6 million, down from 1.86 million as of Sept. 30. The company also lost 403,000 traditional DirecTV satellite TV subscribers, but added 12,000 at IPTV service U-Verse. "During the fourth quarter of 2018, including the impact of losses of 267,000 from DirecTV Now, total video subscribers decreased 658,000," the company said. "DirecTV Now net adds included approximately 65,000 on free or substantially free trials."

Meanwhile, at WarnerMedia, led by CEO John Stankey, the fourth-quarter earnings contribution reached $2.7 billion as operating income jumped 33 percent to $2.6 billion amid gains across all units. Revenue rose 5.9 percent to $9.2 billion, led by $4.5 billion from Warner Bros. (up 10.4 percent), $3.2 billion at Turner (down slightly) and $1.7 billion from HBO (down slightly).

Warner Bros. in the quarter recorded 29.3 percent growth in theatrical product revenue and 3.9 percent growth in television product revenue, with operating income up 57 percent, driven by the higher revenue that was "partially offset by higher expenses."

"Theatrical product revenues increased primarily due to the performance of theatrical releases, including Aquaman, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and A Star Is Born, which also represented a more favorable mix and number of film titles compared to the prior year," the company said. "Television product revenues increased primarily due to higher licensing of series and initial telecast revenues."

HBO's fourth-quarter operating income jumped 29 percent to $622 million as a 12 percent drop in expenses, thanks to lower programming and distribution costs, outweighed a 0.4 percent revenue hit. Subscription revenue fell 3 percent amid a carriage dispute with Dish Network, which began in November. But content and other revenue increased due to higher international licensing revenue.

Turner's operating income for the latest quarter rose $1.3 billion on lower expenses, led by lower programming and markets costs thanks to the timing of original series. Turner recorded a decline of 6 percent in advertising revenue, due to lower ratings in the U.S. and unfavorable foreign-exchange rates abroad, partially offset by an increase of 3.7 percent in subscription revenue.

WarnerMedia is planning to launch, in the fourth quarter, its own streaming service, overseen by AT&T veteran Brad Bentley as general manager and executive vp for direct-to-consumer development at WarnerMedia.

Wednesday's earnings report was AT&T's second that included a full three-months period of Time Warner, which the company had acquired last year for $85.4 billion.

Otter Media, the AT&T-owned digital media business, recently laid off around 10 percent of its employees amid a reorganization of its portfolio of digital brands, including Fullscreen, Rooster Teeth and Ellation. Among the changes is a plan to bring the gaming-centric Machinima brand under the Otter umbrella. The company is also consolidating direct-to-consumer businesses Rooster Teeth, Crunchyroll and VRV under the Ellation banner.

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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by tvroadmin » Wed Jan 30, 2019 8:46 am

So now people are cutting the streaming cord too. So much for the streaming revolution. :roll: A couple more quarters like this and AT&T won't have any pay TV subscribers left to report. :wink

The real reason for this collapse in pay tv is simple: America's middle classes are in despair and collapsing. You won't see this reported on the fake news, but that is actually what is transpiring. If AT&T and the other corporations in America paid living wages to their employees, stopped outsourcing everything and stopped replacing American workers with coolies, :reallyangry maybe someone could actually afford to purchase their products and services.
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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by Arion » Wed Jan 30, 2019 2:11 pm

America's middle classes are in despair and collapsing.

You mean things aren't as rosy as CNBS and Faux Business channel and the .gov says....who would of thunk it? And it isn't only that though. You walk into many poor people's homes and they say they don't have any money to pay their water bill but they got money for smokes, beer, multiple cell phone contracts and yeah, either cable or Satellite TV and Internet.

That aside it's bad enough to have to pay that much for TV to begin with and then they bombard you with more and more inane commercials and it's just too much...not to mention that most of the stuff on today is absolute crap anyway. I like my FTA system and use it a lot mainly for sporting feeds and occasionally when there is something worth watching on mainstream media but I usually watch programming off of my attached hard drives to the receiver as much as anything else. I have many of the old sitcom series of the 50's 60's and 70's as well as many of the classic movies where there was actually a story line and some good acting and content. In short the prices keep going up and they are delivering less and less value to the customer so there is little reason to pay them for it anymore.
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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by tvroadmin » Thu Jan 31, 2019 12:22 pm

Yes, the presenters on the business networks are paid to lie. But if the presenter has a great pair of legs, then they get a bonus. :biggrin But that's about it.

If you want real economic data, a place like Shadowstats probably comes closer to reality. According to Shadowstats, the US economy has been contracting on average by 2% since the year 2000. There was a huge contraction in 2009 before the tax-payer bailouts (heist) calmed things down a bit. So in reality, the US economy is 32% smaller today than it was in 2000. This means people cut off pay tv which they don't need. That is becoming painfully obvious to AT&T, which leads to mass layoffs:

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/thread ... fs.380263/

Those who lose their jobs, cancel their subscriptions, and it becomes a vicious circle. On an annual basis, AT&T is losing 13% of their pay tv subscribers (both DirecTV Satellite and DirecTV Now).
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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by jess76 » Fri Feb 01, 2019 9:58 pm

I would like to add: My wife and I live in a "Cal Vet home" in Fresno,Ca. There are eight in California, and one of the "perks" id free basic TV with internet and Phone. These are supplied by Comcast. The "free"phone will end in March.{can contenue for $19.99 per mo.} The cable companies are feeling the crunch also. Jess out in California
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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by Blackloz » Thu Feb 07, 2019 12:59 pm

OMG!!! The CEO of AT&T is fast asleep... :zzz

Illegal iptv is the cause of their collapse. Soloman and Touchtone already explained it to them in a video:




[youtube]9FqWA4dvXt0[/youtube]

I heard Soloman inherited all the SET TV customers and rakes in a million bucks a month. The lawsuit from DISH had no effect. He even explains in the video where he gets all the channels that he restreams. DIRECTV and DISH. :retarded

Clueless dinosaurs like AT&T go extinct.

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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by tvroadmin » Fri Feb 08, 2019 11:02 am

Mocking ATT/DirecTV on a public youtube video is not a smart thing to do. Neither is illegally streaming copyrighted content. :finger

The major OTT services are starting to go into decline. People are realizing they got to pony up $80 - $100 bucks per month for high quality home internet service to stream OTT content which is highly unreliable at best. And when more of your neighbors start streaming, the local telco copper (yes copper) broadband connection starts to choke up, especially around prime viewing time. Could this be one of the reasons people are abandoning streaming already? Who wants to put up with this hassle? If everyone is streaming and consuming 100x more internet bandwidth than before, who will pay to upgrade the outdated internet infrastructure? Might as well just pay for cable (or satellite) which already has the proper infrastructure in place to deliver live TV.

To top it all off, a 3rd wave of cord-cutting has started in recent years, namely, home internet cord cutting:

Here Comes the Third Wave of Cord Cutting: Home Internet Service
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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by tvroadmin » Fri Feb 08, 2019 11:21 am

Just to add: Orby TV (and services like it) may emerge as the real winners here and not OTT. Only $40 bucks, the service is reliable (via satellite) and you don't need to incur the additional expense of home internet. Most people have internet service at work so they don't need it at home anyway or their wireless phone is sufficient for emails and such.
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Re: AT&T:Pay TV Subscribers Collapsing

Post by rusty » Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:43 pm

Blackloz wrote:
Thu Feb 07, 2019 12:59 pm
I heard Soloman inherited all the SET TV customers and rakes in a million bucks a month. The lawsuit from DISH had no effect.
Nagrastar detectives were hot on solomon's tail about a year ago. I posted the lawsuit

https://www.tvrosat.com/forum/phpBB3/vi ... 252&t=4984

If solomon is running anything at this point it would have to be a honey pot from Nagra. He should have bought himself a hairpiece when the going was good. :biggrin
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