HBO Max hits 12.6m activations
The company just announced HBO Max reached 12.6m activations, up from 8.6m at the end of the third quarter. That’s growth of 4m customers in less than a three-month period, or an increase of 46 percent. The growth has been attributed to the success of hit series The Undoing and The Flight Attendant. As such, engagement with the service increased 36 percent in the past 30 days. HBO is no stranger to this kind of viewer engagement, indeed, its hit series such as Game of Thrones and – going way back Sopranos – that have built the channel’s subscriber base. However, the current streaming environment is hyper-competitive and the company’s goal of reaching 50m domestic customers is both reasonable and lofty.
The NPD Take:
- The service is clearly growing and fast. But, the growth rates remain well behind other industry services like Peacock and Disney+, underscoring the company’s advancement of new customer acquisition approaches.
- Reaching 50m domestic customers will require multiple pillars, theatrical new release is clearly one new strategy not previously available. The ad-supported tier will also need to over-perform.
The next-generation broadcast network
NBC Universal’s streaming platform, Peacock, has reached 26m sign-ups. As with HBO Max, this is also up by 4m from what the company announced in October. Other than measuring success in terms of users and engagement, the strategy for these two services differ vastly. Peacock is highly focused on advertising revenues where Max was built off a subscription model. Advertising is the primary revenue stream for Peacock and given that approach, we’re not going to see the company leveraging assets such as their theatrical new releases to generate engagement.
The NPD Take:
- While Peacock won’t host Universal’s new release movies, it’s plausible to see a time when the service integrates a buy now button. Indeed, the free/low cost subscription strategy will attract a large audience to the platform, one that could be engaged to buy new films.
- Peacock has over performed. It’s a combination of the launch strategy and pandemic fueled increases in streaming. But content availability has been lean and new programming will be needed to sustain this momentum.