Comment Warner Bros. Discovery will merge its HBO Max and Discovery Plus services into a single streaming platform as part of a plan to reach 130 million paying subscribers by 2025 in the highly competitive market. The streaming merger, announced Thursday by the newly formed media group’s David Zaslav during a quarterly earnings call, means that Warner Bros. properties such as the Harry Potter series and the sitcom “Friends” will be available alongside Discovery shows like “Deadliest.” Catch’ and ‘Worst Cooks in America’. Warner Bros. Discovery will also develop a 10-year plan for DC Comics franchises that include Superman and Wonder Woman, similar to what Disney did with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Zaslav said. The HBO Max and Discovery Plus merger aims to reduce subscriber losses with a broad offering that has “something for everyone in the household,” said Jean-Briac Perrette, head of global streaming at Warner Bros. The company also floated the idea of a free ad-supported streaming service. The company plans to launch the merged streaming service in the United States next summer and then in Latin America later that year. Europe and Asia Pacific will follow in 2024. The goal of Warner Bros. Discovery by 2025 to 130 million paying subscribers will be a more than 40 percent increase from the combined 92 million subscribers it has on HBO Max and Discovery Plus. Netflix said last month that it has 220 million paying subscribers worldwide. Disney Plus said in May that it has about 138 million subscribers worldwide. Warner Bros. Discovery will aim to make the new streaming service profitable in the United States in 2024 and have its global streaming division generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025, Perrette said. No name or pricing system has been announced for the new service. For the entertainment industry, an HBO Max move is causing quite a stir Warner Bros. Discovery was formed in April when AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit and Discovery completed their merger and started with about $55 billion in debt. As Zaslav’s team looks to compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney and move toward profitability, it has also shed some legacy projects — such as when it pulled CNN Plus in April, less than a month after the service launched. During the earnings call on Thursday, Zaslav also confirmed that Warner Bros. Discovery would make “a strategic shift” away from releasing movies directly to streaming, saying the approach made less long-term financial sense than releasing movies in theaters. “This idea of expensive movies going straight to streaming, we can’t make a business case for it,” he said. Those remarks came after an investor asked why the company canceled the release of “Batgirl.” The $90 million film – starring Leslie Grace in the title role and starring Michael Keaton as Batman, more than 30 years after he first donned the hood – was released alongside “Wonder Twins” and “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt” due to Warner Bros. Discovery. new strategy. The cancellations could also allow for a potential tax write-off, according to a Variety report, and amid complaints from HBO Max users that some shows were abruptly pulled from the service. “Our focus will be on the theatrics,” Zaslav said. “And when we bring the theatrical films to HBO Max, we find that they have much more value.”
