Discovery Plus and HBO Max combined after Warner merger

Following its merger with WarnerMedia, Discovery confirms it will combine its Discovery+ streaming service with WarnerMedia’s HBO Max. “We believe that the breadth and depth of this content offering is going to be a phenomenal consumer value proposition,” said Discovery Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Gunnar Wiedenfels in a recent presentation at the Deutsche Bank’s 30th Annual Media, Internet, & Telecom Conference.

Discovery Plus currently costs USD 4.99 per month with ads and USD 6.99 per month ad-free. This forms the bulk of Discovery’s streaming subtotal, which the company reported to be 22 million customers globally at the end of 2021. Meanwhile, a combined 73.8 million global subscribers were reported by HBO and HBO Max by the end of 2021. HBO Max is priced at USD 9.99 a month with ads, and USD 14.99 a month ad-free. On Monday, Wiedenfels did not give guidance on how much the combined streaming platform would cost consumers, albeit he did note Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that will be created by the merger, will introduce ad-free and ad-lite products.

“We have HBO Max with a more premium male-skewing positioning, and then you’ve got the female positioning on the Discovery side,” he added, “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 sort of old, young male, female product out there.”

Insider sources of Variety indicate that the deal between Warner Media and Discovery is being targeted anytime between April 11 and April 28. The USD 43 billion merger was approved by Discovery last March 11.