The next year will be a period of significant fragmentation in video. However, it seems unlikely consumers will pay for more than 3-5 subscription video services. More than that becomes expensive, a lot to manage, and offers more content than even a large family of couch potatoes could ever watch. We believe the linear bundle will remain a core package, and Netflix and Amazon already have incumbent positions that are quite solid (although many may not view Prime as a video subscription). In most households, that means everyone else (Disney, ESPN+, CBS, AT&T, Discovery, Viacom, Wal-mart, Apple, etc) will be battling for just one or two slots. Winning in that environment will likely require very significant investment to create a consumer value proposition that stands out from the crowd. Most will likely fail, and either disappear entirely or rebundle their content into one of the services that has scale in viewers and can pay more than the content owners can generate on their own. It's hard to have a view on AT&Ts service without seeing it. But, a price tag north of $15 will require extraordinary value to get any meaningful number of subs to stick with it.

(This isn’t a bad listing of what’s coming and going from HBO. Granted, this particular page is from October 2018, but presumably they’d keep this up.)
“A new month is here, which means a fresh slate of HBO’s usual range of high-profile originals and first television runs of major films. Here are all the movies and TV shows arriving on both the HBO GO and HBO NOW apps in the month ahead.”

via Complex http://www.complex.com/all

via Advocate.com https://www.out.com/rss.xml

RT @HBO: Prepare for sonic seduction.

Flight of the Conchords: Live in London is coming to #HBO October 6. #FOTC

HBO should be the prize for switching from Verizon to AT&T, where the handset and the messaging/apps/etc can molest people’s data and pitch marketers on their “we’re number three” strategy.

To move HBO to a Netflix strategy is to walk into the Musée d’Orsay and announce, “We need to scale this.”

via Complex http://www.complex.com/all

The direct-to-consumer streaming video business model refined by Netflix is the reason Disney and Comcast chased 21st Century Fox with such fervor. It was a big part of AT&T’s motivation for scooping up Time Warner. It marks the biggest shift in entertainment industry economics in decades, and it is an evolution largely driven by a company that has been in the original content business for barely six years.

HBO GO en Fedora

HBO is one of the most successful media brands in history. But like all businesses, it will still need to change and grow if it wants to remain king. Over-the-top distribution means far more than just changing screens.