Could HBO Max’s strategy eat Netflix toast in the US?

The rules of the game have changed. Consumption in broadcasting, which accelerated due to a restriction last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is leaving cinemas in a free fall while the platforms grow in subscribers, although the rhythms of the last quarter in the US have been disrupted by HBO Max and Warner Bros. Regarding their biggest releases for this year.

The first months of 2021 in US subscriber accounts leave a clear winner: HBO Max. The streaming service has 2.8 million subscriptions between January and March, while Netflix is ​​still at 450,000.

What caused this change in direction? it is obvious that Promote “kaiju”. Movies like Godzilla vs Kong premieres directly on the platform and at no additional cost For subscribers, it has given a huge boost to its registrations, as well as to a pandemic box office that is tired of the lack of massive premieres. It became a feature film Best COVID-19 Premiere, with many group records Behind their backs.

HBO Max itself stated in early April that this movie was “bigger than any HBO Max movie or show since its release.” Data on US first-quarter subscribers shows that efforts to make the catalog with more large productions more and more attractive pay off.

Even if Netflix is ​​clearly still the world leaderWith 208 million accounts worldwide and 74 million in the United States and Canada, the proliferation of companies in international broadcasting can turn data on its head.

Not for nothing, Disney + has been crushing recordings around the world by leaps and bounds since its birth with 95 million subscribers a year old and surpassed 100 last March, a milestone that Netflix took a decade to reach.

However, the leader does not consider that the competitive environment of the sector has changed and attributes, in a letter to investors, the lack of new issues and delays in the catalog, the slow growth during these three months.

Netflix predicted that “delays in production due to Covid-19 in 2020 will make the list of premieres take more weight than the second half of 2021, with a number of franchises returning.”

But the truth is that in HBO-Warner still has, until the end of the year, a huge and very interesting list of premieres that can continue to motivate subscribers, such as “Matrix 4” or “Dune” or the next chapter of Warren’s File. Which was a trend on Twitter after the trailer premiere. And Netflix, of course, has it “La Casa de Papel”, “The Witcher” and “Elite”… it’s going to be a “kaijus” fight.