A high-level exec AT&T suggested that HBO, which the telco acquired as part its deal for Timer Warner, has a brand "strong enough that it could be the 'front end' of a bigger subscription business, which could include different programming than it offers now, like sports," according to Peter Kafka of RECODE. AT&T Entertainment Group Senior Exec VP John Stankey, in a June conversation with HBO CEO Richard Plepler and his employees, said, "Live sports is probably still going to have a role in people’s consumption habits moving forward. And I don’t know that there’s going to be yet one standalone platform for live sports distribution and one standalone platform for on-demand premium scripted content. I think over time those start to come together, and there’s only going to be a few platforms distributing them." Stankey said of where the media industry is headed, "There aren’t going to be an unlimited number of platforms that have direct-to-consumer relationships. ... It’s not going to be 10, it probably won’t be two. Now, is it going to be eight, six or four? I don’t know, but if it’s four we need to be one of the four. If it’s six, we need to be one of the six." He added, "If we decide that the brand we’re going to ride is the HBO brand as kind of the front end of that direct-to-consumer relationship or one of the key drivers around it, we’re going to have to provide the ability for customers to navigate out of that brand into other types of content that might not be germane to what you have in your business today." Stankey also said that AT&T would "give HBO more resources to grow" (RECODE.net, 7/9).
