Back in May, AT&T spun off its WarnerMedia division and merged it with Discovery in a $43 billion agreement. The deal is on track to close by mid-2022, after which we may see its streaming services become a combined offering to subscribers. According to Gizmodo, president and CEO of Discovery Streaming and International JB Perrette has discussed the steps the company may take to reach that goal. Initially, Warner Bros. Discovery (as the merged company will be called) may offer HBO Max and Discovery+ as a bundle. In the next phase of the plan, the company may merge the two streaming services into one platform.
FierceVideo said Perette described both streaming services as an “incredibly attractive tech buffet.” He expects the new company to take the best parts from both to create a new platform, as there will be “meaningful cost savings” and “meaningful consumer benefits” from combining the two services,
Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav also revealed during the earnings call that less than half of Discovery+ subscribers in the US are also subscribed to HBO Max. He said that with the right packaging, the fact that the overlap in subscribers isn’t too big “provides a real opportunity to broaden the base of [the] combined offering.”
When and where the joint HBO Max and Discovery+ service will initially be available remains to be seen. Discovery said it might be easier for the company to combine its streaming service with HBO Max in regions where Discovery+ isn’t available yet. At the moment, it’s being very selective when it comes to rolling out Discovery+ to new markets to minimize the need to re-platform two streaming services in the future.
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