It’s time for Disney, Universal, and Paramount to look out for a new competitor in the clash of the entertainment titans. Warner Bros. Discovery has come into being.
Eleven months ago, we found out about AT&T’s WarnerMedia merging with Discovery in an effort to conquer media platforms by combining vast amounts of scripted and unscripted content. Now we have Warner Bros. Discovery, the union between WarnerMedia and Discovery was successfully completed on Friday, bringing together HBO Max and Discovery Plus and all of their resources under one roof.
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The fresh conglomerate is expected to begin trading on Monday, under the ticker, “WBD”. The corporate website is WBD.com for those of you who would like to know.
David Zaslav to Steer Warner Bros. Discovery
Discovery’s own CEO, David Zaslav is now Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO. The veteran chief will lead WBD, taking over from Jason Kilar, WarnerMedia’s former CEO. Other key Discovery executives have joined Zaslav in this venture while other Warnermedia executives have departed with Kilar. The WBD Board now comprises 13 directors, with six hailing from Discovery, Inc. and seven hailing from AT&T Inc.
“Today’s announcement marks an exciting milestone not just for Warner Bros. Discovery but for our shareholders, our distributors, our advertisers, our creative partners, and, most importantly, consumers globally.
With our collective assets and diversified business model, Warner Bros. Discovery offers the most differentiated and complete portfolio of content across film, television, and streaming. We are confident that we can bring more choices to consumers around the globe while fostering creativity and creating value for shareholders. I can’t wait for both teams to come together to make Warner Bros. Discovery the best place for impactful storytelling.”
David Zaslav
It can be hard to imagine that the company behind HGTV, Food Network, and Discovery Plus, and the company behind DC, Cartoon Network, and HBO Max are now one and the same, but odd pairings turn out to be perfect matches more often than you might think, especially with the right people involved. Zaslav and his team running Warner Bros. Discovery just may be the right people.
Stronger Content Ahead
Zaslav and his team are mostly concerned with doing their best to provide quality content as opposed to being the best right away. Prior to the merger, Discovery’s focus has been on unscripted content so naturally, this is a change of pace for the company but Zaslav has a plan. For now, Warner Bros. Discovery will focus primarily on revenue growth in streaming.
“We want to compete against Disney and Netflix, but we are a very different company. Those are two great companies. Disney has a group of people around the world that absolutely loves their product, and they are doing very well. Netflix has a very broad-appeal product and is doing a wonderful job building out that brand. But Warner Bros. Discovery will rely on very identifiable IP, and we are much broader than Disney.
HBO has Euphoria right now, it just had Succession, it has The Gilded Age going right now. When you put Euphoria on, then everybody could watch 90 Day Fiancé and they could watch Fixer Upper, there is a real balance of content here we can go to. The “shock and awe” offerings in the Warner library, together with the nourishment and the great personalities of Discovery is a really compelling menu and a great recipe that we think we can lean into.”
David Zaslav via THR
Discovery + HBO Max = One Unified Streaming Service
It’s only a matter of time before we see HBO Max and Discovery Plus fold into one streaming service, but we don’t know what it will be called yet. Personally, I think HBO Discovery or Discovery Max has a nice ring to it but that’s just me. How this merger will affect their future theatrical releases remains to be seen, but we can expect a change for the better. We’ll be sure to update you when we learn more information on that front.
What do you hope to see from Warner Bros. Discovery? Do you think their streaming service should be called HBO Discovery or Discovery Max? Let us know in the comments below. If you like what you read, follow us on Twitter or Facebook to learn more about Warner Bros. Discovery.
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Deadline: THR
