Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has been working for some months to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single, massive streaming service, which is anticipated to launch this spring. Nevertheless, it seems that the corporation has reconsidered its plan since Discovery+ continues to exist as an independent platform.
“Our plan for the enhanced platform that will include HBO Max and Discovery+ content remains unchanged,” said WBD representative Jeff Cusson. “In addition, we have decided to keep the lower-priced offering of Discovery+ in the US marketplace.”
Executives were afraid that a large percentage of the existing 20 million Discovery+ members would be unwilling to pay a higher price for a package that included HBO Max programming, according to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story first. There do not seem to be any intentions to retain HBO Max as a separate app. As a result, those who want to watch episodes like The Last of Us and Succession without a cable subscription may have to pay extra for a package that includes HBO Max content plus the majority of Discovery+’s services.
Discovery+ costs $5 per month with advertisements or $7 per month without ads, whereas HBO Max costs $10 per month (or $16 without ads). The new service is projected to be more expensive than HBO Max.
According to the source, the new service and Discovery+ would include Shark Week material as well as the Magnolia Network lifestyle series. On both platforms, additional content will be accessible.
According to the Journal’s sources, Discovery+ has modest operational expenses and is profitable. WBD, on the other hand, has slashed billions of dollars in expenditures since its formation last year as a consequence of a merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. The business has apparently started pulling series off HBO Max and scrapping streaming-exclusive projects in order to use them as tax write-offs.
However, according to the source, WBD is preparing to launch its own free, ad-supported (FAST) service with streaming channels including material from throughout the portfolio. This decision makes sense given the company’s recent agreements with Roku and Tubi to provide a selection of Streaming channels offering series like Westworld and The Nevers, which it removed from HBO Max in December.
