As streaming competition heats up, WarnerMedia gains 3 million HBO customers

In the first quarter of this year, WarnerMedia added 3 million subscribers to its HBO and HBO Max streaming services, compared to Netflix's brutal quarter as the two businesses compete for new viewers.

WarnerMedia has 76.8 million HBO Max and HBO customers worldwide at the end of March. In the United States, where Netflix's rates have fallen, the business attracted 1.8 million new customers.

In the United States, WarnerMedia has added 4.4 million customers in the last year, bringing its total to 48.6 million. In comparison, Netflix has approximately 74.6 million customers in the United States and Canada.


The good numbers come just days after Netflix said that its decade-long streak of subscriber growth had come to a halt in the first quarter of this year and that growing membership in many areas was getting more difficult. On Wednesday, its stock dropped about 40%, erasing nearly $60 billion from its market capitalization.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings conceded to investors this week that his new competitors have some very fantastic series and films out, after rejecting them for years while HBO, Apple, and Disney debuted new streaming services.

Despite increased viewership, WarnerMedia's performance in the first quarter pulled on AT&T's, highlighting how expensive the streaming business is.

WarnerMedia's operating income plummeted 33% to $1.3 billion from a year ago, owing to expenditures in HBO Max, the introduction of the CNN Plus streaming service, and fewer advertising sales, according to the company.

After WarnerMedia was sold to rival Discovery earlier this month, the launch of CNN's streaming service has become a bone of controversy within the company.

AT&T said it attracted 289,000 new fibre customers in the third quarter, up 1.1 million from the same period last year, in an area where it and rival Verizon are both investing aggressively.