In 2023, US users will have HBO Max and Discovery+ as one streaming service. The announcement was known for a few months, but during Warner Bros. Discovery Q2 earnings call, the company revealed a few more things
Variety reports the announcement with the timeline of this merge. According to JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games for Warner Bros:
“At the end of the day, putting all the content together was the only way we saw to make this a viable business. Bringing HBO Max and DIscovery+ together is aimed at cutting churn so ‘there’s something for everyone in the househould;.”
While the new name is unclear, since the company is still “doing research on consumer perception of the HBO Max name,” Warner Bros said its initial focus is on the ad-supported and ad-free versions of the combined streaming services.
With many streamings available, companies are finding ad-supported versions a way to have more subscribers since the price can significantly decrease. Netflix, for example, is running against time to launch its ad-supported version as soon as next year.
HBO Max, on the other hand, has just seen a completely internal redesign of its app, now running smoother than ever. As the company is still rolling out the service to more regions, it’s also betting on old content to promote the service. For example, Game Of Thrones was re-released but now it’s in 4K with Dolby Atmos support.
HBO Max and Discovery+ merge will be available in the summer of 2023 in the US, fall of 2023 in Latin America, Europe in early 2024, the Asia Pacific in mid-2024, and additional markets in fall 2024. 9to5Mac will report back once we hear more about this change.
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