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Why you might end up seeing 20-minute ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes on your smartphone

game of thrones
game of thrones

HBO

“Game of Thrones” could be better for people to watch on their smartphones if it were produced in 20-minute episodes, according to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

“I’ll cause [HBO CEO Richard] Plepler to panic,” Stephenson said on Tuesday at J.P. Morgan’s Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, according to Variety. But “think about things like ‘Game of Thrones.’ In a mobile environment, a 60-minute episode might not be the best experience. Maybe you want a 20-minute episode.”

This statement is significant because it isn’t just a media exec riffing about the mobile revolution. AT&T is in the regulatory process of an $85 million merger with Time Warner, HBO’s parent company. If it goes through — AT&T expects the deal to close by the end of 2017 — Stephenson will be the one who ultimately controls HBO.

Variety reported that Stephenson’s quote was underscoring a point that AT&T sees an opportunity to better wring profits out of Time Warner’s media properties using mobile. That’s a main pillar of the thesis driving AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, and its bid to become a next-generation media company. (AT&T has already made HBO free for its “Unlimited Plus” subscribers).

Stephenson has said before that he believes we are in the midst of a prolonged upswing in how much video entertainment we watch.

“We are going to be living in a world where video is pervasively in front of you,” Stephenson said at Business Insider’s IGNITION conference in December. Today the average person consumes five hours of video a day. “That seems amazing to me,” Stephenson said in December. But he said in 10-15 years, AT&T thinks people will watch nine hours per day.

Perhaps that’s one reason HBO is exploring a whopping five “Game of Thrones” spinoff shows.

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