It was a good summer for Discovery. According to this morning’s earnings call, the company closed Q3 with 20 million paying subscribers across its services including Discovery+, up 3 million from the previous quarter.
During the call, president and CEO of Discovery Streaming and International, JB Perrette, also hinted at the high possibility that Discovery+ and HBO Max would merge into one streaming service after Discovery’s upcoming merger with Warner Media.
“There will be meaningful cost savings from combining into one platform. I think there also will be meaningful consumer benefits from combining into one platform,” Perrette said.
“We are very excited about our pending merger with WarnerMedia and the opportunity to bring these two companies together, combining iconic and globally cherished franchises and brands, and positioning us to more efficiently drive global scale across the combined portfolio,” said Discovery Inc president and chief executive officer David Zaslav.
But before the two services combine, it’s likely there will be a bundle offer created for Discovery+ and HBO Max, similar to how Disney offers a subscription package to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
Earlier this year, AT&T was negotiating to combine its media assets with Discovery which would include AT&T-owned networks (HBO, CNN, TNT, TBS, and more), Warner Bro. studio, and Discovery’s channels (HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Discovery, etc.). Now that deal is the closest it’s been to reality with the merger set to be approved in the first half of 2022.