AT&T and Verizon head in opposite directions on content strategy

In June, AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner following a legal victory over the US Department of Justice. The acquisition is transformative for AT&T: pro-forma domestic video and content revenues would have been 36% of total revenues in 2017 – a proportion only slightly lower than mobile. While AT&T has been a significant pay-TV service provider since its acquisition of DirecTV in 2014, buying Time Warner makes AT&T a fully vertically integrated player in the media and entertainment business. Verizon, meanwhile, is moving away from entertainment and instead is emphasising and defending its long-standing reputation for network quality and technology leadership.