This week we breakdown the latest HBO Max/HB0 subscribers numbers just released by AT&T and question how the industry should define sub growth. While 73.8M sounds like a big number, the service had 61M at the end of 2020 and won’t have day-in-date releases this year. We also debate some of the latest “estimates” released on vMVPD subscriber growth and highlight the challenges faced with vMVPD packages now averaging $65 a month. We also touch on some of the latest numbers given out at the CES show around Five TV device sales and Google TV adoption.

Companies and services mentioned: HBO Max, Fire TV, Peacock TV, Sling TV, Hulu, Disney, Netflix, Discovery, WarnerMedia, Apple, Roku, Samsung, TCL, Google TV, YouTube TV, fuobTV, Philo, DIRECTV STREAM, PlayStation Vue, ESPN+, Comcast, AT&T, Fastly, Cloudflare, Brightcove, Limelight Networks, Haivision, Kaltura, Qumu, Vimeo, Twitter, Akamai.

Executives mentioned: Jay Utz, Noah Levine, Robert Coon, Guy Paskar, David Belson.

Links to articles mentioned:

AT&T says they ended 2021 with "approximately 73.8 million total global HBO Max and HBO subscribers
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_hbomax-streamingmedia-activity-6884528669679747072-gVXM

Growth of vMVPD Services Stalling: Sling TV Added Only 260,000 Subs in 4 Years
https://www.streamingmediablog.com/2021/02/vmvpd-stalling.html

Amazon says they have now sold over 150 million Fire TV devices globally
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_fire-tv-is-on-the-move-in-2022-activity-6884522654821302272-BgbL

NBCU says that Premium Peacock customers will be able to stream every minute of every live event of the 2022 Winter Olympics, "All in One Place"
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danrayburn_peacocktv-nbcuniversal-nbcsports-activity-6884599211048890369-ZtmV

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Podcast produced by Security Halt Media