In its financial report for the second fiscal quarter of 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery, formerly known as WarnerMedia, has confirmed that will merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into one service. Since both conglomerates completed their alliance last April, it was only a matter of time before the two video streaming platforms joined forces.
Warner Bros. Discovery also announced that the service will have a completely new name. Of course, at the moment they have not made it known.
In addition to simplifying content management as part of the same strategy, Warner Bros. Discovery also intends to expand its offering of series, films and documentaries that already exist on HBO Max and Discovery+.
However, another question arises: Will they introduce a new pricing scheme? Do not rule out that there is an increase to justify that the new service will have more products to enjoy. If this happens, there will be millions of dissatisfied subscribers. For example, the increase in spending that Netflix experienced is the best evidence that consumers are reacting negatively to these changes, and this is understandable.
HBO Max and Discovery+ to join in 2023
Another important issue is that Merger of HBO Max and Discovery+ will happen gradually depending on the territories. The first to see this movement will be the United States in the summer 2023. Shortly thereafter, in the autumn of that year, the countries of Latin America will follow. Europe, for its part, will have to wait until 2024while Asia will do the same in the middle of this year.
It’s worth noting that the conglomerate’s original plan was not to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single service. Diversity. Initially, considered the option of offering them in a package, but so that each of them continues to work separately. This offer is the same as Mickey’s offerings in Latin America, where Disney+ and Star+ are still offered independently.
However, as mentioned earlier, combining the two services makes directory management easier. At present, almost all platforms prioritize quality over quantity; mainly because consumers are more selective about the content they spend their time on. So the idea is that the platform born from this merger follows the same philosophy that distinguishes HBO Max today.
According to data provided by Warner Bros. discovery, between HBO Max, HBO and Discovery+ added 92.1 million subscribers in the second quarter. That is, they grew by 22% compared to the same period last year. Unfortunately, this time they didn’t provide the numbers for HBO Max that we usually use to compare it to the rest of the competition.
