AT&T kicked off 2022 by announcing a roaring success, with its WarnerMedia subsidiary’s HBO operations claiming a combined 73.8 million global subscribers. However, Faultline was immediately suspicious, and has dug into the little detail available, to gain a better picture. HBO claimed something like 55.6 million global subscribers in Q2 2020, based on its wholesale partnerships with pay TV providers, and a few countries in which you could directly subscribe to its service – like HBO Nordic. This was the quarter in which HBO Max launched, specifically in May, and ever since, AT&T has fudged the numbers, to hide just how little progress has been made, amid the turmoil of transitioning from wholesale to retail distribution. The headline claim is…