AT&T to Pull WarnerMedia Shows from Competing Streaming Services ⇥ dallasnews.com

Melissa Repko, Dallas News:

AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said Tuesday that the company will pull popular TV shows and movies from streaming rivals and “bring that content back into the fold” as it launches its own Netflix-like video service.

AT&T “will be bringing a lot of these media rights, licensing rights back to ourselves to put on our own SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) product,” Stephenson said Tuesday morning at the JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference in Boston.

AT&T’s new subscription video service is expected to launch in late 2019. It will be anchored by HBO TV shows and movies, along with content from Warner Bros. studios and Turner Networks. AT&T became the owner of the valuable entertainment library last June when it bought Time Warner in a deal valued at about $108.7 billion, including debt.

This new era of media conglomerates is dismal for American consumers who will have fewer choices and greater opportunity for exploitation. There is a conscious push to move away from the channel-free future that was hoped for in favour of more expensive siloed options.