AT&T’s Revenue Dips Amid Major Transition

AT&T’s revenues dropped 5.7% year-over-year to $39.9 billion in the third quarter as the company undergoes a seismic shift.

WarnerMedia was a key revenue driver, bringing in $8.4 billion, a 14% jump year-over-year mainly due to growing subscription numbers at HBO Max.

This helped overcome a 12.4% drop in advertising revenues to $1.4 billion, largely attributed to the NBA’s unusual schedule last year.

AT&T is in the process of moving away from being a media provider to focus more heavily on telecommunications infrastructure, including 5G networks.

• AT&T will receive $43 billion when it spins off WarnerMedia into a merger with Discovery.
• In August, it completed its spinoff of DirecTV, receiving $7.1 billion in a deal with private equity firm TPG.
• In July, it struck a 10-year deal worth at least $5 billion to be the primary network services provider of Dish Network.

Slimmed-down operating expenses partly due to reduced sports programming brought a 98% year-over-year increase in net income to $6.3 billion.