Warner Bros. Discovery Is Taking a Page From Disney's Playbook. What Investors Should Watch.
Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) has revealed that its new Game of Thrones prequel TV show, House of the Dragon, drew almost 10 million viewers across both HBO Max and HBO on linear cable on its Aug. 20 debut. The company says it was its biggest-ever single-night launch for an original show. Here's why that's not just good news for the business but also for Warner Bros. Discovery investors.
Game of Thrones was extremely popular during its eight-season run. The HBO show regularly drew tens of millions of live and time-shifted viewers for each episode, and by its last season in the spring of 2019, Game of Thrones managed an average of 44.2 million viewers (live and delayed). Indeed, the TV show was so beloved it is ranked among the most watched of all time.
Considering such popularity, it was perhaps inevitable that HBO would experience a loss of subscribers when Game of Thrones wrapped up. According to some estimates, HBO Now (the precursor to HBO Max) saw a revenue drop of 16% in the period immediately after season 8 finished. And in 2020, some speculated that the lack of Game of Thrones content was linked to approximately half of HBO's 18- to 49-year-old demographic ending their linear HBO contracts.
Source Fool.com
