By The Wall Street Journal: HBO Max, Discovery+ to become one streaming service after merger complete
Streaming services Discovery+ and HBO Max will become one service after Discovery Inc.
DISCA,
-0.46%
and AT&T Inc.’s
T,
-1.29%
WarnerMedia complete their merger, Discovery’s finance chief, Gunnar Wiedenfels, said Monday.
The two streaming services will likely be bundled immediately after the corporate merger, which is expected to close as soon as next month and will form a new business called Warner Bros. Discovery, Wiedenfels said at a conference in Florida organized by Deutsche Bank AG, but the two offerings will likely be combined into one product down the road.
Wiedenfels suggested the bundle could include a single sign-on for both services and share some content, but ultimately the goal would be to combine the platforms into one app. He said he expects the combination to take several months, as the company tries to make the transition as smooth as possible for current users.
Discovery+, which launched at the start of last year, currently costs $4.99 a month with ads or $6.99 without ads. HBO Max also offers two pricing tiers, an ad-supported version at $9.99 a month and an ad-free service at $14.99 a month. Wiedenfels didn’t say Monday how much a combined app might cost, but said the company will likely offer both ad-free and ad-lite options.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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