Discovery and WarnerMedia will merge into one combined entertainment juggernaut which means that Discovery+ and HBO Max will merge into one app in the future.
DiscoMax? HBO Discovery?
The plans were confirmed by Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels at the Deutsche Bank 30th Annual Media, Internet & Telecom Conference, and reported by Variety.
- "The combination could not make more sense than what we’re doing here," said Gunnar Wiedenfels, soon-to-be CFO of Warner Bros. Discovery.
At first, there will be some form of bundle with access to the separate HBO Max and Discovery+ apps. Later, the two platforms will be combined into one app and one streaming service.
HBO Max and Discovery+ both operate in many countries and it is not clear if the transition will happen at the same time in all regions.
- "We have HBO Max, with a more premium, male-skewing positioning, and then you’ve got the the female-positioning on the Discovery side. You’ve got the daily engagement that people enjoy with Discovery content versus sort of the event-driven nature of the HBO Max content. Take that together, I have no doubt that we will be creating one of the most complete, sort of four quadrant, old-young-male-female products out there. And I’m really excited about it. I can’t wait to see the first combined direct-to-consumer metrics because, in theory, the acquisition power of HBO Max, combined with the retention power of the Discovery content I think is going to make for a blowout DTC product, and that should certainly drive very healthy revenue growth for years to come."
The new company will be called Warner Bros. Discovery and the deal is expected to close sometime in April. As for the name of combined streaming service, it is anyone's guess. DiscoMax? HBO Discovery?
- Source: Discovery via Variety
