The new platform, which will combine HBO Max and Discovery+, will launch in the second quarter of 2023
Driven by sustained growth in subscribers, largely thanks to the success of House of the Dragon (HotD), Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it will bring forward the launch of its new platform, which will combine the HBO Max and Discovery+ businesses, for the second quarter of 2023, instead of the last of the year.
The impact of HotD has led the company to reach almost 95 million subscribers for the combined business of HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+, a growth of 2.8 million during the third quarter, compared to the previous one.
David Zaslav, CEO of WBD, told investors that the new platform – which is yet to be named – will arrive two quarters earlier than anticipated: “While our team is hard at work preparing for the launch of our combined offering, we’re also actively experimenting and testing our hypotheses about the future product, in large part to address some of the deficiencies of the existing platform.”
The studio reported losses of $2.3 billion for Q3, including $1.92 billion of pre-tax write-down of intangible assets related to the acquisition and $1.52 billion related to restructuring before taxes and other charges, reports Variety.
“We are reimagining and transforming the organization for the future while driving synergy enterprise-wide, increasing our target to at least $3.5 billion, and making significant progress on our combined DTC product,” said Zaslav. “While we have lots more work to do, and there are some difficult decisions still to be made, we have total conviction in the opportunity ahead.”
