AT&T Says Generating Enough Cash To 'comfortably' Cover Dividend & Pay Down Debt

(RTTNews) - John Stankey, president and chief operating officer, and incoming CEO of AT&T Inc. (T), said the company has confidence that it will continue to generate strong cash flows to invest in key capital areas including fiber, 5G and HBO Max, comfortably cover its dividend and pay down debt.

At the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference, Stankey noted that it continues to be challenging to predict the length or depth of the pandemic's overall economic impact or its effect on the company's overall business.

Stankey said the company's market focus is on providing customers with broadband through its fiber and mobile networks and software-based entertainment offerings such as HBO MAX and AT&T TV.

Stankey also discussed the launch of HBO Max on May 27, which will include 10,000 hours of premium curated content, 2 times the amount of content on HBO, for the same price as HBO -- $14.99 per month.

HBO Max has distribution agreements with Apple, Charter, Google, Hulu and YouTube TV and is continuing to pursue additional deals prior to launch. HBO Max will be included in select AT&T wireless, internet and video bundles at no additional cost.