HBO Max and Discovery : The streaming services merge into one

The media company Warner Bros.

HBO Max and Discovery : The streaming services merge into one

The media company Warner Bros. Discovery is in the midst of a far-reaching structural upheaval. The two in-house streaming services HBO Max and Discovery are to merge into one on the domestic US market from summer 2023, reports "Variety". This was officially announced as a new strategy after analyzing the latest quarterly figures. It is difficult to predict what this merger into a new streaming service that has not yet been named will mean for Germany.

Discovery has only been available in Germany since the end of June 2022. The two models on offer - one with and one without advertising - cost EUR 3.99 a month (EUR 39.99 a year) and EUR 5.99 (EUR 59.99 a year). It offers content from the areas of lifestyle, living and eating, true crime, paranormal, adventure, science, technology, the environment and live sports.

In Europe, HBO Max actually started in October 2021. In Germany, however, a release has always been a long way off. The reason for this are existing exclusive contracts for Warner and HBO productions with Sky Germany. This recently affected series such as “Westworld”, “Game of Thrones” – and its offshoot “House of the Dragon”, which will start on August 22nd.

According to the report, after the United States, the aim is to bring the newly merged streaming service to Latin America from autumn 2023, followed by Europe in early 2024 and Asia in mid-2024. Here too, however, Germany should once again be considered a special case because of the contractual situation with Sky. So it could be that the still nameless streaming service will not enrich the local market until 2025 or even later.

In July of this year it was announced that HBO Max would put various in-house productions from Europe on hold. Another victim of the restructuring, allegedly worth around 90 million dollars, then this week: The basically finished DC film "Batgirl" was completely scrapped.