AT&T will reveal its premium WarnerMedia streaming service in early fall

Disney just pulled off an impressive preview of its Disney+ subscription video service. We even got a price and launch date, which is more than Apple has been willing to share about its forthcoming Apple TV Plus offering. Not to be left behind, AT&T is now planning a showcase for its own WarnerMedia service that includes HBO, according to CEO Randall Stephenson. During today’s AT&T earnings call, Stephenson said the company is planning to demonstrate the paid video service sometime in either September or October.

“We’re going to give you a detailed look at the product, and that includes the breadth of new and existing content, so just stay tuned for that. We’re making significant investments here, and we think our customers are going to love this product,” Stephenson said. AT&T recently brought on industry veteran Bob Greenblatt to lead the direct-to-consumer WarnerMedia service.

Stephenson said the standalone subscription service — which is separate from AT&T’s existing DirecTV Now and Watch TV services — will be “centered on HBO and significantly enhanced by the Warner Bros. library, which is a very, very deep and prolific library.” AT&T is still finalizing details like pricing, he said, but all of that should be ironed out by the time the showcase comes around.

During the Q&A portion of the call, Stephenson was asked for his thoughts on Disney+. “I was impressed by what Disney did,” he said, crediting the company for building something that has widespread and global appeal. He then turned back to AT&T’s upcoming answer to Disney+. “You’ll be able to formulate your own opinion in September or October about what we’ll be bringing to bear. In terms of premium content, think about the HBO brand,” he said. “In terms of breadth of content, consider the Warner Bros. library and the depth of that library — the new original content creation machine at Warner Bros., which is really an impressive, scaled machine in terms of producing theatrical as well as TV productions. We’re actually quite optimistic,” Stephenson said.

“The Disney announcement gave us nothing but more optimism about what we’ll be able to bring to market.”

AT&T seems very focused on the WarnerMedia service and less so on DirecTV Now at the moment, which has been bleeding subscribers, a trend that continued this quarter. Stephenson acknowledged that DirecTV Now might see further losses due to the recent price increases and revamped channel packages, but he said things should level out in the second half of the year.