"Storytelling" is the star... The word was dropped a disproportionate 4 times in the AT&T press release about HBO Max, the new streaming service launching in the spring of 2020. The storytellers — including Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon — will create original shows for HBO. But the real unspoken highlight is the unoriginal.
Reruns are HBO Max's differentiator... AT&T acquired HBO's parent, Time Warner, last year. So it now owns (and will include in HBO Max) a wealth of "the-one-where-she-did-BLANK"-style episodes.
Reruns are Netflix's Achilles heel... Netflix has poured billions annually into original content, but this stat reveals a dramatic problem: 8 of the top 10 shows on Netflix aren't Netflix originals. It's definitely losing its #1 and #2 most-streamed shows — The Office to NBC in 2021 and Friends to HBO Max in 2020 — just as HBO Max reruns itself.