AT&T’s cable triple whammy: the cord-cutting has (officially) accelerated
Not just a phone network… AT&T is a jack of all media and communications trades. It owns pretty much everything, except for your spirit: CNN, HBO, TBS, Warner Bros, DirecTV, and (of course) AT&T wireless are just a few of its many possessions. There's a lot going on. And you know what they say about jacks of all trades...
Master of none?... AT&T's earnings this quarter were not pretty, with sales and profits both declining. The corona-conomy has dealt a triple whammy blow to AT&T's prized media possessions:
- Cord-cutting: With a bunch of new streaming services coming out + no live sports on cable networks, many are ending their relationship with cable. AT&T's cable biz lost 4M in the past year, and 1M just this quarter.
- Lost Ad Sales: Ad-pocalypse is hitting all the TV channels, which are losing out on big commercial $$$ as advertisers save instead.
- No Production: With video production grinding to a halt, AT&T's future TV and movie lineups will have big COVID-19-caused voids.
It's official: cord-cutting has accelerated... Last month, we summarized “accelerating trends” that we predicted would happen in the corona-conomy. AT&T's earnings provide the data confirming that cord cutting is taking off. AT&T has lost 19% of its cable and DirecTV subscribers in the past year. HBO Max, which launches on May 27 for $14.99/month, is AT&T's big streaming hope to offset cable losses.