How AT&T Could Find Itself a Winner in the Streaming Wars (Column)
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business EditorAfter a topsy-turvy week, the thought occurred to me during AT&T’s investor call on Thursday: What if John Stankey wound up on the winning side of the streaming wars?Netflix took a nosedive on Tuesday with an earnings report that proved that it could not suspend the law of gravity forever.
The steady upward climb of Netflix subscriber gains had to stop sometime, and that sometime was Q1 2022.The jolt that the news of six-figure losses in Q1 and a projected seven-figure loss for Q2 packed a wallop on Netflix stock price.
It also dealt a blow to the Hollywood psyche about the long-term promise of streaming, reminiscent of how the earth quaked in August 2015 when then-Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged that even the mighty ESPN had faced “some subscriber losses.” That became the moment that Hollywood begrudgingly had to acknowledge that cord-cutting was a real threat.
Will Netflix’s big miss become enshrined eventually as the moment the content bubble burst? Only time and content spend disclosures will tell.The sense of relief in the AT&T CEO’s voice came in crystal clear even through the tinny webcast audio.
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