HBO Now, HBO’s standalone OTT offering, could claim as many as a million subscribers, according to BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield.
“While HBO Now launched April 7, we had no way of judging churn until after the 30-day free trial period ended on May 6,” said Greenfield.
“We have been closely tracking the progress of HBO NOW in the iOS store’s top grossing apps over the past seven weeks,” he added.
He clarified that the methodology behind iOS app store rankings is not fully understood, but BTIG believes daily revenue generated and velocity of downloads drive rankings.
While there is no way to correlate a rank to a dollar value, he said one can get a sense of whether churn is increasing or decreasing meaningfully.
“We believe over one million consumers signed up for HBO Now in the 30-days after it launched,” said Greenfield. “The question was how many would stick around and would (additions) continue after the initial press attention tied to HBO going direct-to-consumer ended.”
Currently, consumers can sign up for HBO Now on their iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or if they have Cablevision, they can sign up through their existing Optimum Online account.
“While we believe most HBO Now usage is on Apple TVs or iPads, we suspect many consumers signed up using their smartphones, given how easy phone-based sign-up is,” said Greenfield. “Apple has also been featuring HBO Now within the iOS app store.”