Investors looking to add more dividend stocks to their portfolio have found dividend yields right now to be a bit disappointing, reflecting the broad environment. A handful of names still offer strong payouts compared to their stock's current price, and don't impose a huge degree of risk just to plug into that still-solid dividend payout. Telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T) has seen better days.
It was a rocky start for HBO Max, the latest entrant into the so-called streaming wars, on Wednesday. Parent company AT&T's (T) WarnerMedia unit was unable to reach a deal with Amazon (AMZN ) and Roku (ROKU) to make HBO Max available on their hardware; thus, it was noticeably absent from the nation’s two largest streaming players, which between them control 70% of the U.S. streaming-media player market.WarnerMedia would like Amazon to merely pass through subscribers to the HBO Max platform, much as it does with Netflix (NFLX) and Disney+ (DIS) customers. This would make it easier for AT&T to track viewing habits and other data about its customers. Amazon, on the other hand, would like to house the HBO Max content on Prime Videos Channels, as it currently does with HBO.A spokesman for AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit said the company was looking forward “to reaching agreements with the few outstanding distribution partners left, including with Amazon and on par with how they provide customers access to Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu on Fire devices.”The dispute with Roku centers around revenue sharing and advertising rights. Roku typically takes a cut of a service’s subscription fees and gets to sell ads in return for distribution. “As the No. 1 streaming platform in the U.S., we believe that HBO Max would benefit greatly from the scale and content marketing capabilities available with distribution on our platform. Unfortunately we haven’t reached agreement yet with HBO Max,” Roku said in a statement on Wednesday.HBO has around 33 million U.S. subscribers and 140 million globally. Providers with which it has signed agreements to carry HBO Max thus far include Altice USA Inc. (ATUS), Cox Communications Inc., and Verizon Communications’ (VZ) Fios TV, and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA).JPMorgan analyst Philip Cusick recently wrote that he was "optimistic about AT&T's ability to gain share in the streaming world with its planned May launch of HBO Max," but also argued that the service will be "launching into a much slower wireless market, making the product less impactful." Cusick gave AT&T a Hold rating and $35 price target.AT&T stock is down 6% over the past 3 months, but TipRanks data shows a Moderate Buy consensus around AT&T stock among Wall Street analysts. An average analyst price target of $33.62 implies 5.56% upside potential in the shares in the coming 12 months. (See AT&T stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: New HBO Max Streaming Service Will Go Live on Wednesday Weight Watchers Fires Thousands Over Zoom Facebook Workplace Hits 5 Million Paid Users As Remote Work Demand Rises More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Logitech Shares Lifted In Pre-Market On Share Buyback Plan, 10% Dividend Boost * Billionaire Ackman Exits Berkshire Hathaway, Blackstone To Fund Opportunities * Apple Snaps Up AI Startup Inductiv, As Analysts Boost PTs On Store Reopenings * Microsoft Seeks $2B Stake In India’s Jio Platforms- Report
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have long operated as each other's main competitors. Now, together with T-Mobile, they continue to compete for wireless business as the telecom industry transitions to 5G. The approaches pursued by Verizon and AT&T have taken each of these telecom stocks on different trajectories.
In this article we will take a look at whether hedge funds think AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a good investment right now. We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, unconventional data sources, expert networks, and get tips from […]
Of all the new streaming services, HBO Max includes by far the most robust initial library of TV shows and movies.
The blockbuster Harry Potter movie franchise is a centerpiece of the newly launched HBO Max streaming service's library.
Click here to read the full article. Better late than never: WarnerMedia clinched a deal with Comcast for HBO Max, with the final pact officially hammered into place just hours after the super-size streaming service launched earlier Wednesday.Comcast, one of the last big holdouts in picking up HBO Max, will help expand the fledgling streamer's reach. The U.S.'s largest cable operator, Comcast reported 20.8 million total video customers as of the end of the first quarter of 2020, though that was down 4.7% from the year prior.HBO Max is still not available on the two biggest over-the-top platforms, Roku and Amazon Fire TV, including their channel stores.On Wednesday, WarnerMedia and Comcast announced that access to HBO Max is included for the operator's current HBO subscribers, with HBO Max eventually to be integrated into Comcast's guides.Under the deal, Comcast's existing HBO subscribers with Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex will be able to log in to HBO Max's apps and website -- for no additional charge -- and new customers will be able to sign up for HBO Max at $14.99 monthly directly from Comcast "in the coming days." The companies said HBO Max will soon be available natively on the Xfinity platforms, alongside nearly 200 other services, including NBCUniversal's Peacock, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.WarnerMedia's goal is to reach 50 million-55 million HBO Max customers in the U.S. by 2025, according to incoming AT&T CEO John Stankey.Related: HBO Max Launch: How to Get the Streaming Service (and How You Can’t)News of Comcast's deal for the new streaming product comes after WarnerMedia inked a dozen distribution agreements ahead of HBO Max's launch. Those include Apple, Google/YouTube TV, Hulu, Charter, Altice USA, Cox, Verizon, Samsung, Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4. In addition, AT&T, WarnerMedia's parent company, is offering various HBO Max bundling deals and free-trial offers.HBO Max, in which WarnerMedia plans to invest $4 billion over the next three years, launched with more than 10,000 hours of premium content. That's roughly double the lineup available on the traditional HBO service.Content on HBO Max includes everything on HBO and more -- including all eight of Warner Bros. "Harry Potter" movies and full seasons of “Friends,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Rick and Morty,” “Sesame Street” and “Pretty Little Liars.”The streamer also has rights to all films from iconic animation house Studio Ghibli and offers movies from Warner Bros., New Line and DC like “Wonder Woman,” “The Matrix,” “Joker,” “Suicide Squad,” “Casablanca,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi discuss the launch of HBO Max with Ark Invest analyst Nick Grous.
Businesses' speed and productivity can thrive even while employees work from home. As work and home life continue to integrate across the U.S., the need for reliable, fast internet at home has become essential to modern life and business. That's why AT&T;* Business is introducing Home Office Connectivity - the first solution designed to provide business-paid internet access where workers increasingly need it—at home.
While AT&T (T) aims to redefine the streaming landscape with the HBO Max launch, Viasat (VSAT) beats fourth-quarter fiscal 2020 earnings estimate on top-line growth.
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AT&T officially entered the streaming wars on Wednesday with the launch of its HBO Max streaming service. CFRA Research Senior Analyst Tuna Amobi joins Yahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita to discuss how he anticipates the platform to size up to the competition.
Trump's executive order attempting to shackle the platform will probably die in court, but that's beside the point.
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The newest entrant to the streaming wars isn't available in a wide swath of homes across the country.
Shares of Netflix Inc. pulled an intraday U-turn to close higher Wednesday, snapping the longest-losing streak in nearly 10 months, and bucking the launch of the rival HBO Max service and the recent rotation away from COVID-19 beneficiaries.
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WarnerMedia's new streaming service HBO Max launched today with a couple of conspicuous absences from the list of supported devices — Max is not yet available on Roku or Amazon's Fire TV. WarnerMedia's vice president of communications Chris Willard told USA Today that "there is no deal in place" to bring the service to those platforms. In a statement sent out this afternoon, Amazon suggested that the disagreement revolves around bringing HBO Max to Prime Video Channels, and around HBO's somewhat confusing distribution strategy.
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought out some creative accounting at companies, as executives attempt to gauge the impact of the pandemic on their businesses and how they would have performed if the crisis hadn’t all but shut the economy down.
Click here to read the full article. WarnerMedia's HBO Max is now live, packing in twice the content of legacy HBO for the same $14.99 monthly price. But for now, it's unavailable on Roku and Amazon's streaming platforms, which represent more than 80 million TV households.Currently, you can't access HBO Max on Roku or Amazon Fire TV devices, and if you've subscribed to HBO through Roku Channels or Prime Video Channels you're also out of luck. That's frustrating for customers who use those platforms, and it obviously will inhibit HBO Max's initial uptake. Talks between WarnerMedia and the two companies continue, but there's no indication when the parties may come to any agreements.Pre-launch, WarnerMedia had secured a dozen distribution deals for HBO Max. Then on Wednesday the company announced that it also sealed a pact with Comcast for the streaming service.But the absence of Roku and Fire TV platforms represents a huge gap in HBO Max's reach: Roku had 39.8 million active user accounts at the end of March (and that's higher now). In January, Amazon said Fire TV had over 40 million active users; the company says that number is higher now but isn't providing an updated figure.According to Amazon, nearly 5 million HBO subscribers currently access the premium service through Prime Video Channels.Others offering HBO Max include AT&T (WarnerMedia's parent), Apple, Google and YouTube TV, Hulu, Charter, Samsung, Altice USA, Cox, Verizon and the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), as well as for Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4.What's the stumbling block for Roku and Amazon?According to sources, besides haggling over revenue-sharing terms, a key objection the OTT companies have with HBO Max is the shift to an app-based distribution model, in which all of the content is funneled through WarnerMedia's walled garden -- instead of through the Roku and Amazon channel platforms. Meanwhile, there are issues to be resolved about how advertising will be divvied up for an ad-supported, lower-cost version of HBO Max that WarnerMedia plans to launch in 2021.John Stankey, AT&T's incoming CEO and former head of WarnerMedia, spoke about the lack of HBO Max deals with Roku and Amazon in an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" earlier Wednesday."Roku and Amazon at this point have elected to not be distributors," he said. "We must be doing something right if somebody believes we are now starting to be more in conflict with their business, so I don't necessarily take that as a bad sign."Despite the absence of Roku and Amazon, he added, "We have a broad list of distributors who are working with us."Stankey said that the irony in the current standoffs, from where he sits, is that when the U.S. government sued to block AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, the concern was that the telco would withhold content from distributors. "What we have now is we have new distributors, new technology distributors, who are electing to not distribute the product," Stankey said. He also complained that the antitrust challenge to AT&T's Time Warner bid set back the company's ability to pursue its bigger direct-to-consumer strategy for a year and a half.In a statement about HBO Max, a Roku spokesman told Variety, "We are focused on mutually positive distribution agreements with all new OTT services that will deliver a quality user experience to viewers in the more than 40 million households that choose Roku to access their favorite programs and discover new content. Unfortunately we haven’t reached agreement yet with HBO Max. While not on our platform today, we look forward to helping HBO Max in the future successfully scale their streaming business."Amazon, for its part, said in a statement: “AT&T is choosing to deny these loyal HBO customers access to the expanded catalog. We believe that if you’re paying for HBO, you’re entitled to the new programming through the method you’re already using. That’s just good customer service and that’s a priority for us."HBO Max, in which WarnerMedia plans to invest $4 billion over the next three years, launched early Wednesday with 10,000 hours of premium content (although that's less than one-third the lineups of Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime)."Our goal, frankly, is not to be Netflix -- it's to be something different," Stankey said on CNBC. "Our goal isn't to crush Netflix. It's to meet customer needs."Content on HBO Max includes all the programming on HBO; all eight "Harry Potter" movies; a slate of new originals; full seasons of “Friends,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Rick and Morty,” “Sesame Street” and “Pretty Little Liars”; all films from iconic animation house Studio Ghibli; and movies from Warner Bros., New Line and DC like “Wonder Woman,” “The Matrix,” “Joker,” “Suicide Squad,” “Casablanca,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Wizard of Oz.”WarnerMedia announced additional TV shows and movies coming to HBO Max in June, including all seasons of "South Park." In addition, HBO Max has content from other WarnerMedia brands, including CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth and Looney Tunes.