AT&T’s WarnerMedia took a major revenue hit of 11% in the third quarter as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic -- especially due to lower theatrical revenues.
Revenues totaled $7.4 billion, down from $8.4 billion in the year-ago period.
Overall, since the spring disruptions that arose from the pandemic, the company says there has been an “impact” of $1.6 billion in WarnerMedia revenue and a $1.1 billion hit on cash flow -- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
AT&T says its high-profile premium streamer HBO Max had slight growth in the third quarter.
AT&T says combined HBO Max and HBO cable TV network subscribers inched up to 38 million U.S. subscribers from 36.3 million in the second quarter of this year and 33.1 million in the first quarter.
The third quarter included 28.7 million existing U.S. HBO cable-channel subscribers with access to HBO Max, and 8.6 million overall HBO Max activations.
HBO Max launched in May 20. It now has 57 million worldwide subscribers. Globally, the company notes, HBO Max has “doubled” subscriber additions.
Looking at AT&T pay TV services, the company trimmed premium TV subscriber losses for its DirecTV, U-Verse, AT&T TV (its virtual pay TV platform) service to 590,000 in the period. It notes that this included 116,000 subscribers from its Keep Americans Connected Pledge paying accounts.
Previous periods witnessed 886,000 subscriber losses in the second quarter, 897,000 in the first quarter, 945,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 1.16 million in the third quarter of 2019.