After seeing the success of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime — WarnerMedia (owned by AT&T) wants to get in the mix. The company announced yesterday that they plan to launch a Netflix competitor late next year.
The service will include content from HBO, as well as WarnerMedia films, television series, libraries, documentaries, and animated content.
WarnerMedia was created as part of the AT&T/Time Warner merger. The company owns HBO, Turner (CNN, TBS, TCM, truTV, Cartoon Network, and TNT), Warner Bros (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, etc.).
While AT&T already has DIRECTV NOW as their live streaming service, the thought is that their new SVOD service will focus more on commercial-free original content.
The company has seen some success with their OTT subscription service HBO NOW, however there have been reports that it doesn’t have enough content to compete with Netflix. Currently, HBO spends $2B on original content, as compared to $8B by Netflix.
As millennials are trending away from Live TV, this new service will try to hedge as cord cutters move completely away live content for everything but news and sports.