Verizon vs. AT&T: A tale of two media investments

Telecommunication companies AT&T and Verizon are both pursuing a strategy that marries content and distribution. But they are taking two different approaches and, so far, seeing radically different results. Verizon admitted that its media arm, Oath — which consists of AOL, HuffPost, Yahoo and other digital brands — is struggling to drive revenue. Meanwhile, AT&T said that WarnerMedia, its media division that was formerly called Time Warner, is flourishing. Oath is driven by digital ad income, whereas WarnerMedia is driven by revenue from streaming subscriptions, its studio business and its digitally-sold television ads business. The digital ad business continues to be a tough marketplace for media companies competing with tech giants like Google and Facebook, whereas those tech giants have yet to dominate subscription streaming, movies, and digitally-sold TV ads.