Months after announcing the $43 billion intentional merger, WarnerMedia and Discovery responded to what would happen to HBO Max and Discovery Plus when they created the figuratively named Warner Bros. discovery. According to Variety, Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during a recent panel at the 30th Annual Media, Internet & Telecommunications Conference that the company plans to merge the two platforms into one unified streaming service.
“One of the most important things here is that we believe in a combo product, not a set,” he said. “We believe the breadth and depth of this content offering will be phenomenal customer value.”
Merging the two platforms is what Wiedenfels says will require Warner Bros. Discovery of a few months to “do it in a way that really makes a great user experience for our subscribers.” In the meantime, HBO Max and Discovery Plus customers should expect at least some bundling.
Wiedenfels suggested that it could be content sharing between the two platforms and the introduction of single sign-on. One question that the executive did not answer is how much it will cost to subscribe to the new combined service. Discovery Plus and HBO Max currently start at $5 and $10 per month, with both platforms offering more expensive ad-free tiers.
Not surprisingly, Discovery and TimeWarner are planning to merge their streaming platforms. When the merger was first announced last year, it was pitched as a move that would allow the two companies to better compete against Netflix, Disney+ and other competitors.
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