One of the biggest stories of 2021 so far, in the entertainment industry, at least, is the news that AT&T was, in essence, selling off WarnerMedia and merging it with Discovery. This came after a rough several-month period for WarnerMedia, as the studio kept getting hammered for its decision to send blockbuster films straight to streaming on the same day as theatrical and just the general feeling that HBO Max has yet to fully become the Netflix competitor it positioned itself to be. But after the announcement of the merger, there were a ton of questions—with the primary one being about what the new Discovery/WarnerMedia deal would mean for HBO Max and Discovery+? Well, the full announcement isn’t ready to go, but the CEO is teasing that it should be coming soon and no one is rushing into anything.
READ MORE: WarnerMedia Is Merging With Discovery But The Big Questions Still Don’t Have Answers
Speaking at a virtual Communacopia event (via Deadline), Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who is set to become the CEO of the merged studio, as well, talked about the future of the company once it combines with WarnerMedia. And though he didn’t talk about any details, the report claims that the executive teased a strategy that could see a new/rebranded streaming service that would combine both HBO Max and Discovery+, as well as live news and sports, in a hope to compete with the biggest streamers out there.
But before we get to this new strategy, which isn’t coming until mid-2022, most likely, Zaslav wants everyone to know the team behind the merger is taking its time with it and won’t rush out a bad product.
“We are modulating it. We are being careful,” he explained. “We have a lot of subscribers. Warner has a lot of subscribers… We want to be thoughtful. We don’t want [it] to be confusing” when the merger happens.
Zaslav added, “We are still going forward, we are just being thoughtful and mindful. We are on track for the new markets to come on, but [are] looking at those new markets, at the approach, at the way we attack it with the idea in mind that next year we will be a new company.”
A lot of that is clearly CEO-esque business-speak, but basically, Zaslav and the folks behind the scenes know how important this merger is for the future of both brands. Discovery+, while not the home of tons of scripted films and TV series, has amassed an impressive subscriber base, thanks to its reality television and documentaries. And HBO Max, despite its terrible branding, has established itself already, as well, with its lineup of original shows and huge film projects. So, if the merger is botched, you could see both brands getting hurt in catastrophic ways.
Conversely, if it’s a huge success, Discovery/WarnerMedia could rival Disney, Amazon, and Netflix, and the rest of the streaming heavyweights and perhaps become the biggest one out there.
