Outlets reporting that HBO Max and HBO Now have a combined 36.3 million subscribers, a five percent increase since the end of 2019. Those figures aren't in the immediate earnings release, and there's no way to determine if the 1.7 million adds are all because of HBO Max.

Standard cable additions of HBO makes sense, but I do still believe that concerns many journalists raised prior to HBO Max's launch ring true. HBO Max's biggest competitor is HBO (and HBO Now in the form of how confusing the branding gets.) https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/27/20881734/hbo-now-max-streaming-wars-friends-big-bang-theory-warnermedia-netflix-disney-apple

When HBO Max launched the HBO platforms already have more than 34 million subscribers. If HBO Max only added 1.7 million — at a time when streaming is more popular than ever and people are watching TV — reads to me as slightly disappointing. But streaming is a long game!

The easy comparison to make because it's what every streaming service will be compared to is Disney+, which saw 10 million subscribers in its first 24 hours, and 50 million (globally) in less than six months. It's not exactly a fair comparison for a number of reasons.

Disney+ launched with one of the most anticipated shows of 2019 — sources told me drove a decent percentage of those 10 million (on day one, I heard just over 2.3 million) to sign up immediately. HBO Max's big event, which AT&T thinks is the Friends reunion, was postponed.

Plus, Disney+ is $6.99. HBO Max is $14.99, and that's a hard price to justify for people who are pretty happy with Netflix/Hulu, maybe a Disney+. That can change, and likely will change, with the next big HBO show. And HBO will have another one. It's just a matter of when.

And of course, the big elephant in the room I'm sure AT&T CEO John Stankey will address the elephant in the room, which is the ongoing negotiations with Roku and Amazon. I'm also sure that impacted, even if slightly.

Anyway, here's a quick slide from AT&T highlighting HBO Max's successful launch with a show from 1994 and a movie that was originally intended to be released in theaters.