Coming Soon

Summer 2023. There is a date – but not a brand name nor the price of the future subscriptions – for the fusion between HBO Max and Discovery+, announced last July during the company’s Q2 earnings call. “At the end of the day, putting all the content together was the only way we saw to make this a viable business,” said at the meeting JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games for Warner Bros. Discovery – Variety reports.

The move has already had consequences: some of the Warner Bros. movies and TV content has been removed from HBO Max’s titles, and the release of the already finished film “Batgirl,” – which cost an estimated $90 million – has been canceled.

The Los Angeles Times explains the possible reasons behind the axing of an already filmed movie: “canceling projects such as “Batgirl” could potentially allow for a tax write-off for Warner Bros. Discovery. However, a person close to the company said that scrapping “Batgirl” was not a money-saving measure,” wrote the Angelino newspaper.

The news of the merging between HBO Max and Discovery+ came months after another critical fusion: last May, HBO’s parent company, WarnerMedia, incorporated Discovery.

 

Sources:

Variety
Los Angeles Times
The Wrap
Vanity Fair