NEW YORK—As the political debate over the amount of major sports on streaming platforms continues to heat up, a new analysis by Gracenote shows that sports has quickly become a foundational part of the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) content mix and now makes up 5% of overall programming on leading services.

That is a major change from just 18 months ago. In November 2024, sports made up just 1.4% of the Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ catalogs, according to the inaugural Gracenote Data Hub analysis. In the past 18 months, these five providers have more than doubled that distribution to 3.3%. With HBO Max now included in Gracenote’s analysis, sports rises to 5% of all content. There are now nearly 38,500 sports shows, episodes, sports games and events on the leading global SVOD services.

HBO Max currently offers the most sports content among major global streamers tracked by the Gracenote Data Hub, accounting for 35% of available sports. At the individual game and event level, HBO Max offers 42% of sports content.

After HBO Max, the next most sports-heavy destinations are Amazon Prime Video (25%), Netflix (16%) and Disney+ (14%). Focusing on the individual game and event level, Paramount+ emerged as the leader in sports programming in the Q1 2026 Data Hub, released in February. Now, Paramount+ is home to 30% of games, events and sports show episodes.

Newly added HBO Max jumps ahead of Paramount+ by offering 42% of this sports content. Paramount Skydance’s impending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery should make the new combined company a key player for streaming sports content globally.

Another key finding from the Q2 update is the number of FAST channels has increased by 19% year-over-year. Entertainment, sports, news and reality are the most predominant channel genres, with news channels exhibiting the most annual growth (57%) year-over-year. At the same time, FAST serves as a significant distribution channel for live sports from all over the world. More than one-third of content on sports channels on FAST (37%) is live sports events.

The Gracenote Data Hub analysis was expanded to include HBO Max as of the just released Q2 2026 update. Going forward, the service’s programming will be tracked quarterly alongside that of Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+.

Launched in November 2024, the Gracenote Data Hub provides insight into the content available on the now six leading global SVOD services and 2,120 FAST channels. The resource taps Gracenote Global Video Data, the industry’s most comprehensive trove of content intelligence powering advanced content search, discovery and recommendations capabilities. Updated quarterly, the resource tracks how leading SVOD catalogs and FAST channels are evolving over time and what these shifts signal.

For more information, visit Gracenote.com.

LONDON—New research from Ampere Analysis shows that HBO Max has the largest bundling footprint among streaming services across 20 major global markets.

“HBO Max’s strong bundling footprint reflects the continued importance of operator relationships in streaming distribution,” explained Jaanika Juntson, research manager at Ampere Analysis. “As competition between platforms intensifies, partnerships with telcos, pay TV providers and other streamers are becoming an increasingly important tool for expanding reach in saturated markets. For streaming platforms, these partnerships provide an important way to reach new audiences while reducing subscriber acquisition costs as well as aiding retention.”

Across the 20 markets tracked by Ampere Analysis, HBO Max leads the streaming bundling landscape, with a total of 60 unique bundle partners spanning pay TV, telcos and other streaming platforms. This is followed by Disney+ (52), Netflix (47), Apple TV (27), and Amazon Prime Video (26), highlighting the importance of partnerships in streaming services’ distribution strategies.

HBO Max also leads streamers in terms of the scale of its partnerships, featuring in 303 packages with partners, ahead of Disney+ (289), Netflix (263), Apple TV (174) and Amazon Prime Video (161).

The bundling landscape and the ranking of streaming services by bundle partnerships differ across regions. In North America, Disney+ features in the most bundles, while Netflix leads in Western Europe. Meanwhile, HBO Max’s partnerships are concentrated in Central and South America and Central and Eastern Europe, reflecting the service’s legacy distribution model in these regions. Brazil, the US and Poland host the largest number of HBO Max bundles, with 30 different bundle partners across the three markets.

A significant number of HBO Max partnerships take the form of ‘hard’ bundles, which account for 44% of the service’s partnerships. Ampere defines hard bundles as packages in which the streaming service is included as a fixed component and cannot be disaggregated. Examples include the upcoming HBO Max bundle with Sky Ultimate TV in the UK.

More information is available here.

LONDON, U.K. —Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that its HBO Max streaming service will launch in the U.K. and Ireland on Thursday, March 26, 2026.

Already available in over 110 territories worldwide, HBO Max will offer a mix of best-in-class series, movies, extraordinary real-life stories and, via TNT Sports in the UK, live sport.

For the first time, audiences in the UK and Ireland will be able to stream the exclusive collection content from HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, DC Studios and Max Originals, all in one place on HBO Max.

HBO Max will also become the streaming home of TNT Sports in the UK1, giving subscribers access to top quality live sports content including the Premier League, Emirates FA Cup, Adobe Women’s FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, Gallagher PREM Rugby, Premiership Women’s Rugby, UFC, MotoGP, Grand Slam tennis, Grand Tour cycling and much more.

JB Perrette, CEO and president of Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said: “After decades of delighting audiences in the UK & Ireland with our remarkable stories and brands, it’s a huge thrill to finally bring it all together on HBO Max, and also offer it directly to all consumers. Starting at just £4.99 per month or £5.99 for our complete entertainment offer – HBO Max brings the most differentiated and best streaming offer to market.”

“Launching HBO Max in the UK & Ireland marks a significant moment for viewers here,” added Andrew Georgiou president & managing director for Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe. “HBO Max will offer them their most loved series and movies from HBO, Warner Bros. and DC Studios, alongside premium sports from TNT Sports in the UK, within an outstanding single destination for this great content and strong value proposition. Nowhere else will you be able to get The Pitt, House of the Dragon, Euphoria, Lanterns, Superman, One Battle After Another, as well as the eagerly awaited Harry Potter series, all together.”

In addition to movies and HBO originals and series, HBO Max will include the full range of TNT Sports content and live coverage. Subscribers can stream exclusive matches from the Premier League, Emirates FA Cup and Adobe Women’s FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League, as well as every Gallagher PREM Rugby match, Premiership Women’s Rugby, more than 1,000 live cycling broadcasts each year including every stage from the Tour de France, every match from the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, every MotoGP race, plus the World Snooker Tour, the winter sports season, Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 and much more.

With an unchanged price of £30.99 per month for TNT Sports, the service will offer subscribers a standalone TNT Sports plan or ability to purchase alongside select HBO Max plans.

Following HBO Max’s launch, TNT Sports will also continue to be distributed via existing partners in the UK & Ireland. The company’s discovery+ streaming service will continue as the streaming home of TNT Sports in the UK until TNT Sports moves to HBO Max on 26 March. From this time, fans who subscribe to TNT Sports via partners in the UK will be able to access it on HBO Max.

Beginning March 26, viewers in the UK and Ireland will have a range of entry points to HBO Max spanning four monthly entertainment plans, providing accessible and flexible options to suit all preferences. In the UK, TNT Sports is also available as standalone plan or can be purchased alongside select HBO Max entertainment plans1.

HBO Max described the various tiers and pricing for the streaming service as follows:

• Basic with Ads (£4.99/month): Stream on 2 devices in Full HD. All the best HBO Max shows and movies, excluding movies that first stream on the service following their theatrical release window.
• Standard with Ads (£5.99/month): Stream on 2 devices in Full HD, with 30 downloads. All the best HBO Max shows and movies, including movies that first stream on the service following their theatrical release window.
• Standard (£9.99/month): Stream on 2 devices in Full HD, with 30 downloads. All the best HBO Max shows and movies on an ad free basis,4 including movies that first stream on the service following their theatrical release window.
• Premium (£14.99/month): Stream on 4 devices in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos (where available) and 100 downloads. The ultimate HBO Max experience with all the best HBO Max shows and movies on an ad free basis,4 including movies that first stream on the service following their theatrical release window.
• TNT Sports Plan (£30.99/month): Including TNT Sports 1-4, TNT Sports Ultimate, live event feeds and TNT Sports Original Documentaries (limited to two of your available streams). Can be purchased within the UK as a standalone plan or in addition to select entertainment plans.

At launch HBO Max will be available direct from hbomax.com. In addition, HBO Max launch partners in the UK & Ireland will include Sky5 and, Prime Video giving customers even more ways to access award-winning entertainment, movies and live sport.

HBO Max will be available on all major devices including TVs, set-top boxes, streaming devices, mobiles, tablets, game consoles and platforms including Android, EE / BT TV, Fire TV, iOS, LG, PlayStation, Roku, Samsung, Virgin TV and Xbox.

Subscribers will be able to create up to five personalized profiles, receive tailored recommendations and enjoy features like Continue Watching and, depending on your plan, offline downloads. Families will also be able to set up kid-friendly profiles with age-appropriate content and parental controls.

HBO Max will be available for pre-registration on the App Store and Google Play beginning March 12.

HBO Max has launched in an additional eight European countries, including Italy, Germany, and Austria.

It almost completes the streaming service’s European rollout, with just the UK and Ireland left. HBO Max is due to launch in both territories at the end of March.

Speaking about the streamer’s latest launch, JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros Discovery, said: “It is exciting to kick off the New Year by expanding into some of the biggest economies in the world, as we continue to deliver HBO Max to new viewers.”

Audiences in Germany, Italy and Austria will be able to subscribe to HBO Max as an add-on to their Prime Video service, after WBD agreed a distribution deal with Amazon.

The agreement extends the two companies’ existing European collaborations in France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand, TVBEurope.

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK—Paramount has launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery with an all-cash tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. for $30.00 per share in cash or about $108.4 billion.

The bid for all of WBD comes just days after the company agreed to sell the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, HBO and Netflix for an enterprise value of about $82.7 billion, with the remaining WBD assets being spun off into a separate publicly traded company.

The Paramount bid touches off what could be a protracted bidding war for the company.

In announcing the bid, Paramount said its offer for the entirety of WBD provides shareholders $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix offer. The deal has the financial backing of the Ellison family and RedBird Capital, along with $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo, according to Paramount.

It also said that its bid would avoid some of the anti-trust and regulatory issues that could face a Netflix deal. On Dec. 7, President Trump also told reporters that the Netflix deal “could be a problem,” raising concerns that he is likely to be involved in the regulatory review.

Paramount also reported that the “combined business will execute on a $6+ billion cost synergy opportunity, in addition to the more than $3 billion in standalone cost efficiencies that Paramount expects to achieve in its current transformation plans,” indicating that the deal could result in substantial layoffs.

David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: "WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company. Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion. We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process. We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares."

Paramount said the all-cash offer at $30.00 per share, equates “to an enterprise value of $108.4 billion, which represents a 139% premium to the undisturbed WBD stock price of $12.54 as of September 10, 2025. In contrast, the Netflix proposal entails a volatile and complex structure valued at $27.75 mix of cash ($23.25) and stock ($4.50), subject to collar and the future performance of Netflix, equating to an enterprise value of $82.7 billion.”

MUNICH and MILAN—Warner Bros. Discovery said HBO Max is expanding into Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein on Jan. 13, 2026, and that the service will launch in the U.K. and Ireland in early 2026.

The plans mark a major expansion of the service into key European countries, bringing HBO Max to millions of new viewers.

“We are thrilled to bring HBO Max and the stories that stick with you to new countries across Europe this January,” JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said. “With our strongest lineup of U.S. and local HBO series yet, blockbuster local and international movies and the Olympic Winter Games, it is the perfect time to make HBO Max available directly to subscribers. It has never been easier to enjoy the most talked-about series, hit movies, unmissable live sports and extraordinary real-life stories.”

HBO Max launched first in the U.S. in 2020 and has since expanded across Latin America, Europe, Central Asia and Asia Pacific. The service is set to launch in the U.K. and Ireland in early 2026, completing its European roll-out. For Q3 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery reported 128 million streaming subscribers.

As part of the expansion, the company also announced a vibrant slate of local HBO original programming from Germany and Italy.

In addition, subscribers can add the sports add-on to unlock Eurosport’s acclaimed coverage and premium sports programming. This includes every tennis match from the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, as well as more than 300 days of live cycling including every stage in full of cycling’s iconic Tour de France. In Germany and Italy, viewers will have access to the winter sports season, including World Championships and World Cup events, and viewers in Italy will benefit from FA Cup and UFC coverage,

The College Football Playoff (CFP), ESPN and TNT Sports have announced kick times and broadcast information for the 2025 CFP First Round, which will launch the second year of the 12-team Playoff.

“We are pleased to work with both ESPN and TNT Sports to deliver these first-round games to fans across the country in premier viewing windows,” said Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff. “We also appreciate the collaboration with the National Football League in coordinating schedules to best serve fans of both college and professional football. This all reflects the growing reach and excitement surrounding the new Playoff format, and we look forward to showcasing the best of college football on both networks.”

The 2025-26 edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff will begin with the first CFP First Round game on Friday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and ESPN. First round action will continue on Saturday, Dec. 20, as ABC and ESPN will broadcast the first game of Saturday’s tripleheader at noon ET, while TNT will present games at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. ET, respectively. All games on ESPN networks will be available on the ESPN App, while the first-round games airing on TNT and truTV will also be streamed on HBO Max. Each of the four first-round games will be played on campuses to be announced on Selection Day, Dec. 7.

In April, it was announced that ESPN will present each of the four Playoff Quarterfinals, the two Playoff Semifinals and the 2026 CFP National Championship, slated for Monday, Jan. 19, at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

The CFP National Championship returns to Miami for the first time since the 2021 contest, marking the second straight season the national championship game will return to a city for a second time, after Atlanta hosted the title contests in 2018 and 2025.

Last season, the inaugural CFP First Round delivered 10.6 million average viewers across ESPN networks and TNT Sports.

The quartet of Playoff Quarterfinals scored multi-year viewership highs, while the CFP Semifinals produced the most-watched Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on record (20.6M viewers) and the second-most-watched Capital One Orange Bowl in nearly 20 years (17.8M viewers). The 2025 CFP National Championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame attracted 22.1 million viewers, the most-watched non-NFL sporting event over the past year. The showdown peaked with 26.1 million viewers. ESPN reported.

The Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing customers will see hikes ranging from $1 to $2 a month when their plans renew in November.

Streaming services have been increasing prices in recent years in a bid to boost profits and drive consumers into ad-supported tiers that can be more easily monetized.

Those tactics have boosted profits at Netflix and pushed streaming operations at some companies like Disney into profit but has also increased churn and reduced customer satisfaction in streaming services. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index Entertainment Study 2025 released in July of 2025, consumer satisfaction in video streaming stumbled 1% to a score of 78 (on a 100-point scale).

According to that survey, HBO Max remained unchained at 78.

The new prices for HBO Max plans as of October 21 are $10.99 for HBO Max Basic With Ads, up $1, $18.49 a month for HBO Max Standard, up $1.50, and $22.99 a month for HBO Max Premium, up $2.

The higher prices for the ad-free tiers seems designed to drive consumers into ad-supported plans.

Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav has consistently maintained that the streaming service is "under priced."

HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming service's reach to more than 100 markets around the world.

Programming for the service varies by market but includes movies and TV shows brands like HBO, Max Originals, Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Warner Bros. and Discovery.

It also offers such global hit series such as "Game of Thrones", "House of the Dragon", "The Last of Us", "The Penguin", "The Pitt", and Hollywood blockbusters like "Superman" and "A Minecraft Movie", the complete Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix movie collections.

HBO Max also announced that it will premiere “IT: Welcome to Derry” on October 26 (October 27 in Asia Pacific, where available). Set in the world of Stephen King’s IT universe, the new HBO drama is developed for television by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs.

Upcoming movie premieres include “M3GAN 2.0”, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”, “How To Train Your Dragon” and “Weapons”.

A complete list of markets where the service is available can be found here.

NEW YORK—Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streaming service is making some major updates to its user interface that are designed to improve content discovery and the browsing experience.

The service, which will be rebranded to HBO Max in July, said that beginning this week, it will be rolling out an enhanced browsing experience in the U.S. with dynamic video previews on the homepage. This upgrade means that when a user hovers over a title with a corresponding video preview, it will automatically play at the top of the homepage, instantly immersing the viewer in the content.

The update builds on the success of Max’s previous feature launch, which delivered video previews with audio on the homepage’s hero carousel earlier this year.

To provide subscribers with control over their experience, users will also be able to toggle the video and audio on or off from the settings and playback menu. This feature will be available for U.S. adult profiles across all subscription tiers on connected TV devices, the streamer reported.

“This experience makes it easier for customers to confidently decide what to watch by providing more context through short video previews. It empowers them to make a more informed, and ultimately better choice on what to watch and helps them discover more titles they know they'll enjoy," said Tyler Whitworth, Max’s chief product officer.

In addition, initial stages of a new in-house AI-assisted tool will begin rolling out in the coming weeks which will be used to identify and suggest “Drop-In Moments,” popular and recognizable short scenes from library content, to be featured as previews. The tool will help recommend standout scenes for the Max team to then choose for utilization on the homepage, the company explained.

“This AI-driven technology will enable us to identify Drop-in Moments for the vast catalog of content on Max and significantly reduce the manual time needed to curate previews,” WBD Chief Technology Officer Avi Saxena said. “It reflects our broader commitment to using AI to transform the way audiences find and connect with content on Max.”

LONDON—Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that HBO Max will launch direct-to-consumer in multiple new countries this July as the streamer becomes available in Albania, Armenia, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Tajikistan.

The company also reported that launches are expected in Germany, Italy and the U.K. in early 2026.

In addition to movies and TV series from HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, Max Originals and others, sports on HBO Max will be available in select countries, with events including tennis Grand Slams — Australian Open, Roland-Garros, The Championships, Wimbledon, and US Open — as well as cycling's Grand Tours — Giro d'Italia, La Vuelta a España, Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes — and major winter sports events. Rights vary by country.

"Our continued global expansion of HBO Max is helping fuel the great momentum we continue to see for the service,” said JB Perrette, CEO and president of Global Streaming & Games at Warner Bros. Discovery. “These 12 countries will be followed by a few additional markets later this year, and launches in Germany, Italy and the U.K. early next year. Each new market further positions HBO Max as a worldwide destination for the best in entertainment."

"As we mark a period of incredible momentum and engagement in Europe, we're thrilled to bring HBO Max to multiple new countries,” added Jamie Cooke, executive vice president and managing director of Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Turkey at Warner Bros. Discovery. “This expansion is an important milestone in the globalisation of HBO Max, and it reflects our commitment to delivering world-class storytelling to audiences everywhere. Subscribers can look forward to enjoying a premium streaming service that combines quality content from HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures, Discovery, Eurosport and much more."

Say hello to HBO Max—again. This summer, Warner Bros. Discovery—HBO’s parent company—is changing the name of its popular streaming service from “Max” to “HBO Max,” after using just “Max” since 2023.

How will the move affect Warner Bros. Discovery? Does it even matter?

The short answer: Yes, branding matters immensely in a landscape as crowded as streaming, where the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix are all too eager to poach HBO’s customers. For its part, HBO has long tinkered with its brand, and not just to grab headlines.

But Warner Bros. Discovery needs to tread carefully in this case. Market research is critical.

According to new research from Outward Intelligence, consumers have been responding positively to HBO and Max’s evolving strategy. Viewers continue to strongly associate both HBO Max and Max with high-quality original content (29 percent for HBO Max, 24 percent for Max) not to mention a wide selection of shows and movies (33 percent for HBO Max, 34 percent for Max). Over the last two years, Max’s platform has largely delivered what audiences have come to expect from the HBO legacy—award-winning programming, variety, and quality that stands out in a saturated marketplace.

In some ways, the standalone Max has even broadened HBO’s appeal. More viewers cite ease of use and navigation on Max (25 percent) compared to HBO Max (18 percent), reflecting successful platform upgrades and an improved user experience. A greater share of consumers also claim the “subscription is worth the price” (21 percent for Max versus 17 percent for HBO Max), signaling growing perceived brand value. Viewers see accessibility and affordability.

The 2023 rebrand was a win for HBO. The company successfully tweaked around the edges and nailed the margins, improving the user experience in response to consumer preferences.

Now, HBO needs to avoid a brand setback. On the bright side, HBO’s approval rating did not take a hit over the last two years; it remained stable. Fifty-eight percent of consumers have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of HBO Max, and the same is true for Max. Neutral and unfavorable ratings remain virtually unchanged.

The key for HBO Max is not undermining the user experience, whether it is the platform’s ease of use and navigation or the quality of its content. Not only is content king, and difficult to ace, but even the most high-quality content needs to be supplemented by routine technological improvements and enhancements that strengthen the point of delivery.

Maintaining brand loyalty is increasingly difficult in today’s day and age. Subscription cycling is par for the course. Most Americans believe there are too many streaming options, and cancellation is a quick way to cut costs in an inflationary economy. Gen Z consumers—an ever-growing segment of the market—are also more likely than older generations to cancel monthly streaming subscriptions, with price increases cited as the main reason.

Competing against other streaming companies, HBO is no stranger to customer churn. Out of all the streamers, Max has seen the highest percentage of users who have paused and restarted their subscriptions to the service, accounting for nearly one-third of customers. Retaining HBO’s core brand strength can help stabilize subscription cycles, keeping customers loyal month after month.

Fortunately for HBO, the foundation is strong. Loyalty has been built over decades—from The Wire and The Sopranos to Game of Thrones and The White Lotus. As Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav recently put it, the HBO moniker “represents the highest quality in media” to millions of Americans.

But HBO also represents something more—a brand willing to tweak and tinker based on customer feedback. The “Max” era was a success story because HBO never lost sight of its target audience.

For the second coming of “HBO Max” to be successful, market research remains indispensable. Just like hit shows earn and re-earn trust with each new season, Warner Bros. Discovery must up the stakes with HBO’s offerings—to the max.

NEW YORK—Warner Bros. Discovery today unveiled its plans to separate the company into two publicly traded companies—one focused on its streaming services and the second on its cable business, confirming plans it announced last December.

The “Streaming & Studios” company will consist of Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, as well as their film and television libraries. Global Networks will include entertainment, sports and news television brands worldwide, including CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., and Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, and digital products such as Discovery+ streaming service and Bleacher Report (B/R).

The separation is expected to be completed by mid-2026, subject to closing and other conditions, WBD said.

David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, will serve as president and CEO of Streaming & Studios. Gunnar Wiedenfels, chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, will serve as president and CEO of Global Networks. Both will continue in their present roles at WBD until the separation. The company also announced that it is borrowing $17.5 billion from J.P. Morgan to finance the restructuring.

“The cultural significance of this great company and the impactful stories it has brought to life for more than a century have touched countless people all over the world,” Zaslav said. “It’s a treasured legacy we will proudly continue in this next chapter of our celebrated history. By operating as two distinct and optimized companies in the future, we are empowering these iconic brands with the sharper focus and strategic flexibility they need to compete most effectively in today's evolving media landscape.”

Added Weidenfels: “This separation will invigorate each company by enabling them to leverage their strengths and specific financial profiles. This will also allow each company to pursue important investment opportunities and drive shareholder value. At Global Networks, we will focus on further identifying innovative ways to work with distribution partners to create value for both linear and streaming viewers globally while maximizing our network assets and driving free cash flow."

"We committed to shareholders to identify the best strategy to realize the full value of our exciting portfolio of assets, and the Board believes this transaction is a great outcome for WBD shareholders," added Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., Chair of the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors. "This announcement reflects the Board's ongoing efforts to evaluate and pursue opportunities that enhance shareholder value.“

“The merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery three years ago has had mixed results with many analysts lamenting the fact that a high-profile studio wasn't better positioned to exploit its high-value legacy content. High debt, a challenging streaming market and a continued increase in cord-cutting have had a negative impact on the company’s bottom line. CNN announced earlier this year that it would cut 6% of its workforce. And in a recent publicized misstep, the company botched its rebranding of HBO Max to Max, reversing its decision last month to return to the HBO Max moniker.

This was reflected in today’s announcement when the company noted that the split will allow WBD to “to be faster and more aggressive in pursuing opportunities that strengthen their competitive positions,” and form “world-class management teams focused on creating greater strategic flexibility and focus so that each business can invest in and pursue its operational and financial goals.”

NEW YORK—Warner Bros. Discovery announced during its upfront presentation that Max, the company’s streaming platform, will be rebranded as HBO Max this summer.

The rebrand marks the fourth name change for the service in the last decade, and the fifth name since HBO Go was launched in 2008. The service was called HBO Max from 2020 to 2023, when the name was changed to just Max.

In making the change, WBD cited the importance of HBO’s programming to the service's subscriber growth, with 22 million subs added in the last year. WBD is projecting that the service has “a clear path to over 150 million-plus by the end of 2026.”

“The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming. Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead,” Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav said.

WBD attributed the subscriber growth, which pushed Max to 122.3 million subs in Q1, to its strategy of focusing on programming that is working best like HBO, recent box-office movies, docuseries, certain reality series, and Max and local originals, and de-prioritizing other genres that drive less engagement or acquisition.

The company also said the name change was guided by the fact that “no consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content. With other services filling the more basic needs with volume, WBD has clearly distinguished itself through its quality and distinct stories, and no brand has done that better and more consistently over 50-plus years than HBO … Returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering.”

Warner Bros. Discovery announced today that it will no longer pursue plans to launch a separate sports tier for its Max streaming service. The announcement comes weeks after the studio scuttled its plans to launch the Venu sports streaming service with Fox and Disney, ending the controversial proposal that spawned criticisms of monopolistic practices and a lawsuit from DirecTV.

It also comes as the company reorganizes, with the expectation that it will split off its legacy U.S. cable networks from its streaming Max service and the studio business this year.

"Over the last year plus, we had the opportunity to assess how users engage with sports and news on Max, and we’ve been actively involved in exploring ways to evolve the sports distribution ecosystem in the U.S. We believe that the best place for that content for now is within the Standard and Premium tiers," said JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, WBD. "This update ensures that subscribers can continue to enjoy that coveted access within Max, while also enabling ongoing investment in our premium sports and news portfolio."

Beginning on March 30, B/R Sports and CNN Max will no longer be available on the Basic with Ads tier.

B/R Sports on Max boasts more than 1,700 live games and events each year from the NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, NASCAR and tennis's French Open, among others. Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT channel, which has broadcast NBA games for decades, will lose their contract with the league at the end of the 2024-2025 season.

Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced the launch of their long-awaited premium streaming bundle for the United States. For $16.99 per month, subscribers will get ad-supported versions of Disney+, Hulu and Max; ad-free will cost $29.99 per month, a savings of 38%. The services are available for purchase on any of the three streaming platforms’ websites.

Between the three services, viewers will get a wide selection of content from ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, HBO, HGTV, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight, Star Wars, Warner Bros., and many more. The two companies have launched a coordinated, cross-platform national marketing campaign focused on each streamer’s collection of fan-favorite TV series, films and characters. The campaign includes a robust blitz across national broadcast, social, digital, and owned-and-operated channels.

Along with popular hree complementary libraries including some of the greatest franchises like Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, Disney’s Frozen, The Avengers, Star Wars, and Toy Story and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Batman, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. In addition, subscribers can also enjoy an upcoming slate of must-watch premieres including Only Murders in the Building Season 4 on Hulu (Aug 27), Agatha All Along on Disney+ (Sept 18) and The Penguin on Max (Sept).

HBO Max’s rebrand to simply “Max” takes effect today and the service is marking the launch by expanding its 4K content eight-fold. 

At launch, Max will introduce a new Ultimate Ad-Free tier that will offer four concurrent streams, up to 100 offline downloads and nearly 8x more films and episodes of 4K UHD content (some in 60fps format) than HBO Max, including popular programming such as Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Matrix films and more, all for $20/month or $120/year. Existing HBO Max subscribers will still have access to their current plan features for a minimum of six months following launch. 

Dolby Atmos and Vision will be available for select content and devices. 

“We understand the value of offering our users a cinematic playback experience and to that end, we’ve implemented more advanced technology workflows that allow us to release more 4K content in a faster, more efficient way,” said Sudheer Sirivara, Global Technology Platform, Warner Bros. Discovery. “Max will offer more than 1,000 films and episodes in 4K at launch, and we’ll be adding more every month as we move forward.” 

Additionally, all Warner Bros. movies released this year and going forward will be available in 4K UHD when they arrive on Max following their theatrical windows.

On May 23, a large portion of HBO Max subscribers will have their apps automatically updated, while others will be prompted to download the updated Max app. HBO Max subscribers will have their previous plan, profiles, avatars, settings, “Continue Watching” and “My List” items waiting for them to stream on Max. Ahead of launch, customers can also pre-register for Max on the Google Play Store or pre-order on the Apple App Store now. Additional information can be found here.

SAN FRANCISCO—As streaming video providers struggle to retain viewers and improve profits in an highly competitive streaming landscape, Samba TV has released a new analysis of the top streaming programs of 2022 that provides a number of insights into the impact of different streaming release models. 

In releasing new content, Netflix pioneered the idea of releasing all the episodes of a show simultaneously to encourage binge viewing. But as the streaming market has become more competitive, entrants like Disney and HBO Max have relied on weekly episodes while others have experimented with two-part drops.

Samba TV’s analysis found programs leveraging a weekly release model gained more viewers over time, making this rollout appear to be the best choice for content platforms looking to maximize total viewership. 

On the other hand, shows that released all episodes in bulk were most likely to retain fans throughout the season, making the model of dropping all episodes at once ideal for streamers looking to maximize initial buzz and keep audiences binging.

The Samba TV researchers reported that HBO’s “House of the Dragon” drove interest each week of its season with new episode drops, which ultimately culminated in the highest reach, while Netflix’s bulk-release of “Wednesday” generated the strongest buzz in its first 50 days and earned the top spot based on premiere viewership for the year.

“In the battle among streaming providers, success is defined by various metrics: maximizing subscribers, platform engagement, and show audience,” said Samba TV co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin. “Comparing Netflix's ‘Wednesday’ and HBO's ‘House of the Dragon’ illustrates two different approaches that draw massive audiences, with an intense focus on how to captivate younger, diverse viewers. As the streaming landscape rapidly evolves, it's essential to develop innovative, data-driven ways to break away from the pack.”

Key findings of the analysis include: 

• Netflix’s “Wednesday” was the number one premiere of 2022. By its 50th day of release, a key measurement benchmark, “Wednesday” was the most-viewed premiere episode of the year, drawing 8.7M households and surpassing “House of the Dragon” premiere viewership of 8.4M households.
• HBO’s “House of the Dragon” was the number one show of 2022 based on total deduplicated household viewership across all episodes, generating the greatest viewership at 16.3M households compared to “Wednesday” with 12.2M households.
• Bulk-release shows drove new viewership over time at a lower rate than weekly releases, but were more likely to retain their initial fans throughout the season. The average retention rate between premiere and finale viewership (based on viewership within the first 50 days) for bulk release shows was 47% across the 9 bulk release shows within the 20 shows analyzed. Among these 20 shows, 7 out of the top 10 highest retention rate shows released episodes in bulk as opposed to weekly or in two parts.
• In general, shows with weekly episode drops gained more new viewers over time. The ongoing buzz generated by new episodes released each week caused many of the shows with weekly episode releases to more than double their viewership between premiere and full-season. The average lift between premiere and total viewership for the 8 weekly release shows within the 20 shows analyzed was 119%. 
• The two-part release model shows potential to maximize the retention benefits of bulk releases, along with the weekly release model’s ability to maximize total unique tune-ins throughout the season. Across the shows with two-part drops, there was an average higher lift from premiere to total viewership than bulk-release shows (58% vs. 45%). Additionally, the average retention rate from premiere to finale was higher than weekly release shows, suggesting that two-part releases may present a third way for streamers to partially reap the benefits of both release models, sacrificing neither total household viewership nor retention rate while also feeding the strong appetite binge watchers have for bulk release drops. 

Perifery, a recently launched division of DataCore was created to provide compelling content management solutions for the broadcast industry. At NAB 2023 in Las Vegas, Perifery CEO Dave Zabrowski shares the company’s vision and development of a product that will dramatically streamline workflow for video producers. It’s a critical time for media producers, given the rise of AI and the vast amounts of data they must now juggle to create content efficiently and effectively. In addition to data stored on traditional local servers, producers are increasingly utilizing AI and storing and retrieving data-rich content from the cloud and streaming sources. “Imagine having to search endlessly for the right piece of content. It holds up the creative process and makes the job more difficult than it should be,” Zabrowski explains. Media producers need to get at the data fast and in an organized fashion to complete projects quickly—the new award-winning Perifery AI+ announced at NAB is the enabler. Meta-aware and intuitive, Perifery AI+ accelerates content searching, browsing, reviewing, and previewing, enabling users to rapidly locate content clips and objects based on specific topics. It’s THE missing link to maintaining productivity in today’s data-rich environments. “Plus, it’s ready for the future,” says Zabrowski, as he describes how producers may one day also have access to new sources of content, such as data from consumer wearables. “The M&E market is in the golden age of disruption and Perifery is poised to lead it with products like Perifery AI+.”

During an exclusive interview with Perifery CEO Dave Zabrowski, we learn how the needs of media producers have advanced to a point requiring a more sophisticated means of content storage and retrieval. The company’s new Perifery AI+ was created to do just that. Watch the video below to hear how.

For more information about NAB’s award-winning Perifery AI+ and how content producers can benefit from integrating it into their workflow, please visit  www.perifery.com.

NEW YORK—As Warner Bros. Discovery prepares to launch its combined streaming service on May 23, the company reported Q1, 2023 earnings that showed the heavily indebted firm is making progress on its plans to cut streaming costs and reduce losses while continuing to retain and attract new direct-to-consumer subscribers. 

Based on those positive trends, the company also said that it now expects its U.S. direct-to-consumer (DTC) segment to be profitable in 2023, a year ahead of its previous guidance. 

In the Q1, total DTC subscribers around the world were 97.6 million, an increase of 1.6 million global subscribers since the end of Q4 while DTC operating expenses were $2,405 million, down 24% (excluding currency fluctuations) compared to the prior year quarter. 

Overall, DTC adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $50 million, a $704 million year-over-year improvement on a pro forma combined basis.

In the U.S. DTC subs for HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+ increased to 55.3 million in Q1 from 54.6 million in Q4, 2022 and 53.4 million in Q1, 2022. 

We’ve come through some major restructurings and have repositioned our businesses with greater precision and focus,” said David Zaslav, president & CEO in a statement announcing the earnings. “And we see a number of positive proof points emerging, with DTC perhaps the most prominent. We made a meaningful turn this quarter with $50 million in segment EBITDA and 1.6 million net adds, and we feel great about the trajectory we are on. In fact, we now expect our U.S. DTC business to be profitable for 2023 – a year ahead of our guidance.”

BURBANK, Calif.—Warner Bros. Discovery has unveiled its new Max streaming service, which will launch in the U.S. on May 23 with content from both HBO and the Discovery brands. Pricing for Max will remain the same as the HBO Max ad-supported and ad-free tiers.

Max will be a destination for HBO Originals, Warner Bros. films, Max Originals, the DC universe, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, an expansive offering of kids content, and programing across food, home, reality, lifestyle and documentaries from brands like HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, TLC, ID and more, the company explained. 

While the new service combines both HBO and Discovery content, discovery+ will continue as a standalone service. HBO Max subs will be moved to the Max app. 

"From the biggest superheroes to real life champions; from culture-shaping dramas to taste-shaping entertainment; from fantastical realms to the realest of worlds, Max will offer an unrivaled range of choice," said JB Perrette, president & CEO, Global Streaming & Games, Warner Bros. Discovery. "This new brand signals an important change from two narrower products, HBO Max and discovery+, to our broader content offering and consumer proposition. While each product offered something for some people, Max will have a broad array of quality choices for everybody."

Max will offer three pricing options: 

• Max Ad-Lite | $9.99/month or $99.99/year. 2 concurrent streams, 1080p resolution, no offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality 
• Max Ad Free | $15.99/month or $149.99/year. 2 concurrent streams, 1080 resolution, 30 offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality. 
• Max Ultimate Ad Free | $19.99/month or $199.99/year. 4 concurrent streams, up to 4K UHD resolution, 100 offline downloads, Dolby Atmos sound quality 

Existing HBO Max subscribers will have access to Max at the same price as their HBO Max subscription and can visit http://help.hbomax.com/introducingMax to find out more. 

Additionally, HBO Max subscribers will still have access to their current plan features for a minimum of six months following launch. HBO Max subscribers' profiles, settings, watch history, "Continue Watching," and "My List" items will also migrate to Max so they can pick up streaming right where they left off.

In terms of content, the company said the service will feature an average of more than 40 new titles and seasons every month. Audiences will be able to explore the worlds of HBO, the DC Universe, and Harry Potter, plus hit movies, original series, and genres like true crime, reality, food, and comedy. 

"The Max service is a wide-ranging mosaic of content that will be unmatched in the breadth, reach, and excellence of its offerings," said Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content. "We are unique because we have the best-in-all-categories across the board by any measure – be they ratings, awards, fandom. We know we can satisfy any craving because we have the brands that people love. At Max, they will find what they want, when they want it."

The company also announced a number of new titles, including a Max Original Harry Potter series; a Max Original comedy series derived from The Big Bang Theory; an HBO Original "Game of Thrones" prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight; a Max Original drama series based on The Conjuring films; Magnolia Network's Fixer Upper: The Hotel; Discovery Channel's Survive the Raft; Max Original Peter & the Wolf from Bono, Adult Swim's Rick and Morty: The Anime; Investigation Discovery's Lost Women of Highway 20; Cartoon Network's Tiny Toons Looniversity; and TLC's Love & Translation.

In announcing the new service, the company also highlighted a number of features to improve the viewing experience:

• Premium Video Playback: A new video playback experience will deliver smooth and cinematic video to users, wherever and however they prefer to watch. Whether binging their favorites, watching offline on-the-go, or tuning in on Sunday nights for the latest episode of Succession, users can count on seamlessly diving into their preferred worlds.
• Personalization: Max will expand personalization beyond just the home page, offering a differentiated and high-performing experience for every user across the whole service. By significantly increasing our investment in machine learning while maintaining an editorial voice, Max will deliver a unique human and machine approach that will help surface the best content for our users.
• More Prominent Kids Experience: At launch, Max will introduce a default kids profile for new subscribers along with accompanying parental controls. Parents can choose to customize settings and select to limit content for the kids profile by ratings: little kids (tv-y), big kids (tv-y7, tvy7-fv), big kids plus (tv-g, g), preteens (tv-pg/pg), or teens (tv-14, pg-13). Parents will also have the ability to set individual profile PINs to lock access to their adult profiles, as well as a parent code to lock their children inside of the Max kids experience.
• Simplified Navigation: Streamlined categories, improved content details pages, shortcuts, dedicated brand hubs and thematic content rails, make exploring the app and discovering new interests easier. The updated design coupled with a better personalization engine will help consumers quickly find and discover the best of what they are looking for.
• 4K UHD: The Ultimate Ad-Free tier of Max will have an expanded catalog of content available in 4K UHD including key programming such as Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight Trilogy and more. All Warner Bros. movies released this year and going forward will also be available in 4K UHD when they arrive on Max following their theatrical windows.

A new survey of U.S. consumers by Reviews.org provides some good news for pioneering services like Netflix while highlighting some serious problems for the overall industry regarding subscription fatigue, password sharing and fickle subscribers who are cancelling subscriptions at alarming rates.  

On the positive side, some pioneering streaming services continue to maintain consumer interest despite growing streaming subscription fatigue. About 43% of U.S. consumers named Netflix as the service they would choose if they could only have one service, more than double those choosing Prime Video (17%), Hulu (16%), Peacock (8%), HBO Max (7%), and Paramount+ (5%). 

As streaming choices over the past 2 years have exploded, the survey also found that consumers are overwhelmed with choice – and not just from the amount of content itself, but the amount of streaming subscriptions to choose from. 

That helped convince 39% to cancel a service in the last six months and 55% to subscribe to a new service. Top reasons for canceling were cutting back on monthly expenses (44%), followed by not watching enough (37%), using a different streaming service more often (9%) and favorite shows no longer available (6%). 

While Netflix was the most valued service, it was also the most canceled, with 21% reporting that they had dropped their subscription in the last six months. Hulu was the second most dropped (20%), followed by Peacock (14%) and HBO Max (13%). 

Password sharing also remains rampant, with nearly two in four reporting that they shared a login. 

The complete report is available here. 

If the past several years represented a hockey stick type growth spurt for subscription streaming services, 2022 showed us that the party was over as media companies struggled with defining their streaming strategies and cope with lower growth brought on by what many considered a saturated market. It also showed us that when it comes to getting their entertainment and news, consumers are watching their pennies and are increasingly turning their attention to advertising-supported VOD. 

Case in point: Warner Bros.-Discovery and Netflix, two companies that dominated the streaming market—helped along by deep content libraries—spent 2022 playing catchup with fickle viewers. WBD’s failed launch of CNN+ last summer was perhaps the best illustration of a company that had not fully sussed out what its viewers were looking for. Among the reasons cited for its failure? Subscription fatigue.

“CNN+ could have avoided the shutdown outcome by better understanding the consumer pulse of subscription fatigue,” Sushil Prabhu, CEO and chairman of Dropp told Forbes. “The digital market’s incredible growth over the past three years is to blame — almost every month, a new digital content service launches online that offers consumers more choices than ever, and that’s before selecting music, video, news, podcast or gaming digital service options.”

The failure of CNN+ was characteristic of a tough year for the company, which merged with Discovery in the spring. By the early winter, WBD announced a series of layoffs at its divisions, including CNN, as well as the cancellation of several high-end film and TV projects in an attempt to deal with a $48 billion debt.

Netflix had its own set of problems when it started the year by reporting a loss of 200,000 subscribers in its first quarter, its first-ever decline in subscription growth since going public. In addition to concerns over the impact of inflation on consumers cutting back on their entertainment dollars, it also illustrated how internal conflict over programming choices was affecting the company’s bottom line. 

“Netflix was a gut-driven, risk-taking, maverick culture,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “Now it’s more prudent and frequently indecisive.” 

Although its stock declined 47% in 2022, Netflix ended the year on a positive note, impressing Wall St. with improved revenues and subscription growth in its third quarter. And while the numbers are not yet in for its new lower-cost ad-supported streaming tier that was launched in November, analysts think the company is facing an improved outlook in 2023. 

2022 was a bit of a mixed bag for Disney. Although Disney+ officially dethroned Netflix as the world’s top streamer in terms of subscriptions in 2022, it was, like its competitor, also dealing with internal strife that went very public late in the year when the company fired Bob Chapek, the CEO that led the company through the launch of its streaming service, and bringing back Bob Iger as temporary CEO. Among the most cited reasons for the turmoil was what some on Wall St. considered overspending and mismanagement of one of the industry’s fattest production budgets.

The shakeup led analyst David Bloom to post a series of questions on TV Tech sister brand NextTV that will need to be addressed in the coming months as Disney attempts to stem the bleeding represented by a nearly $1.5 billion loss on Disney+ in its latest quarter:

“Does Iger pull back on the promises to Wall Street both he and Chapek made of reaching break-even on streaming spending by 2024? Does he repeal Chapek’s projection of up to 260 million subscribers by then? Should the company sell more projects to other outlets, or make fewer shows for its streaming services? For that matter, is streaming still the future of the company? How much should the company be investing in streaming while it’s still milking ESPN, ABC, Freeform and theatrical movie releases, never mind its prodigious parks & resorts, consumer products and other divisions?” Bloom asked.

Disney’s woes were also compacted by the continued speculation over its ownership stake in Hulu. Although Comcast has indicated that it plans to sell its 33% stake in Hulu to Disney by 2024—giving Disney 100% control over the vMVPD—Disney’s inability to provide a clearer picture about Hulu’s role in the future of its streaming strategies is sowing doubt on Wall St. and lower morale at both companies. 

With at least another year to go before the transaction, Comcast will have plenty of time to concentrate its focus on Peacock, which reported a healthy uptick in subscribers to 18M its latest quarter. And it will need it as the market for ad-supported streaming services heats up with new competitors. For the year, overall ad sales for NBCU were soft, according to NBCU CEO Jeff Shell.

"The advertising market has been really pretty steadily worsening over the last six to nine months,” Shell said at a conference earlier this month. And I think it's gotten even worse really in the last month or so." 

Paramount+ spent much of 2022 expanding its international footprint with launches in S. Korea as well as Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland, and ended the year with approximately 43 million subscribers worldwide, up from nearly 33 million at the start of 2022, its first full year since rebranding in 2021. Parent company Paramount Global also saw some executive shakeups during the year and is responding to the downturn in advertising in part by reorganizing Showtime and Paramount Television Studios into other parts of the company. 

And then there’s Amazon Prime, which perhaps suffered the least in 2022. With an ever increasing budget ($15 billion in 2022 alone), demonstrated by the debut of television’s biggest-budget series in history, “Rings of Power,” as well the continued success of “Thursday Night Football,” and a revamped UI, the company finished the year on a high note. And yet, its status as a non-traditional media production giant as well as its reluctance to release subscriber numbers has led many in the industry to underestimate its potential.  

All in all, 2022 proved to be a mixed bag for streaming services, with major players searching for ways to improve their market positions amid a slowing economy and increasing competition. 

This article has been updated. 

NEW YORK—A little more than a year after it left the Amazon Prime Channel service, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon today announced that HBO Max is once again available on Prime Video Channels in the U.S., allowing Amazon Prime subscribers to sign up for HBO Max’s $15/month streaming service.

Amazon Primes’ Channel provides a one-stop-shop for viewers to subscribe to premium viewing services and offering an easy way for HBO Max to attract new subscribers. At the time it left Amazon Prime Channels in September 2021, then-HBO Max Chief Andy Forssell told Bloomberg that WBD was willing to sacrifice the potential short term loss of 5 million subscribers in favor of cutting out the middleman, in this case, Amazon Prime, which it sees as one of its major competitors. 

Although the HBO Max app remained available on Amazon’s Fire TV and the streamer did offer some incentives to attract customers at the time of its withdrawal, it was not enough to stem the tide of disappointing revenues and subscriber numbers that followed. 

Even though it boasts some of television’s deepest and most awarded premium TV content, the service has not lived up to its full potential. In response to recent disappointing quarters, the company has announced that its combined HBO Max
Discovery + will be launched in the spring of 2023 as well as an ad-supported FAST service, which WBD said will also be available via Amazon Prime Channels.  

Although WBD CEO David Zaslav—who replaced Kilar when Warner Bros. merged with Discovery earlier this year—has said he wants to focus more on its traditional linear service, the company says it wants to increase the availability of HBO Max in advance of next spring's launch as well as the ever-more important data that comes with it.  

“Warner Bros. Discovery is committed to making HBO Max available to as broad an audience as possible while also advancing our data-driven approach to understanding our customers and best serving their viewing interests,” said WBD Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell.

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast is bringing back Free TV Week from November 22 to November 28, during which Xfinity customers on X1, Flex and Stream can access to thousands of shows and movies from over a dozen premium networks and streaming services like HBO Max, Prime Video, Starz, Epix, Showtime, AMC+ and others. 

The free content, which is normally only available with an additional premium subscription includes: 

• On HBO Max, exciting HBO Original series like the premiere season of "House of The Dragon", the first season of the Emmy-award winning series "The White Lotus" and all available episodes of season 2, and the recently released theatrical film on HBO, "Don’t Worry Darling".
• The first season of select Prime Video Originals, including "The Terminal List" and "Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan" ahead of the season 3 release in December.
• Starz’s new period drama, "Dangerous Liaisons" and its popular hit, "P-Valley".
• "Rogue Heroes" from Epix, as well as its just-released movie, "Smile".
• The first season of Showtime series "Your Honor" in advance of the season 2 premiere in January, and all available episodes of its current hit, "Let the Right One In".
• On Peacock, the first four seasons of "Yellowstone" just as season 5 gets underway, and the theatrical hit "Nope".
• The first seasons of the AMC+ "Originals Dark Winds" and "Gangs of London", as well as the first and second season of "A Discovery of Witches".
• In addition, many other subscription services will make their full catalogs available during Free TV Week, including Acorn TV, Lifetime Movie Club, Up Faith & Family, A&E Crime Central and Kidstream. The week will also feature thousands of hours of LGBTQ+ and multicultural content with services like ALLBLK, dekkoo, Here TV, Revry, Brown Sugar and Out TV making their services available to enjoy at no cost.

LONDON—The numbers are in and a winner in the most awarded SVoD streamer faceoff is HBO Max, according to Ampere Analysis, which based its results on a survey of more than 35 international media awarding bodies. HBO Max—which will be relaunched as HBO Max Discovery in the spring of 2023—has the highest proportion of award-winning content in the US, offering just shy of 700 championed films and TV shows, followed by Netflix and Amazon Prime Video with over 500 titles each. 

In terms of concentration of award-winning content, HBO Max leads the rankings again, with one in five (21%) decorated titles in its library, besting the smaller Apple TV+ (19%). Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, though close-behind in volume, have a much lower density of award-winning content, at 10% and 7% respectively, Ampere said.

One major factor in why HBO Max came out ahead: it has a legacy of older, critically acclaimed content, with almost three quarters of its award-winning titles over 10 years old. These older award-winning titles are 79% movies, composed of Warner Bros’ sizeable movie catalogue (137 titles) and content licensed through a partnership deal with The Criterion Channel (122 titles). Of the decorated TV Shows, HBO-produced titles make up the largest share (30%).

HBO’s reputation for high-quality, premium titles has continued into the streaming era—the 2022 Primetime Emmys saw HBO and HBO Max jointly claim a network-leading 38 wins across 13 shows. This included the most-decorated show The White Lotus, which won in 10 out of the 13 categories it was nominated in, as well as shows with multiple wins including Euphoria (6) and Succession (4).

Netflix also saw a successful Emmys season, with 26 total wins across 11 shows including historic wins for South Korean drama Squid Game which claimed six awards, the most ever by a non-English language series. Netflix’s much younger award-winning catalogue is driven by its original series, with 43% of award-winning titles under 10 years old being a Netflix Original, and a further 25% being Netflix exclusives.

Joe Hall, Analyst at Ampere Analysis says: “Platforms that focus on delivering premium, top-end content to viewers unsurprisingly have highly decorated, award-dense catalogues. The focus on quality over quantity is key to retaining and growing a subscriber base whilst maintaining a smaller library. With a shrinking pool of licensable content, emphasis should be placed on titles that consumers engage with long after the initial release. Those that are victorious at well-established awards ceremonies, such as the Emmys, not only prove their quality but can help to elevate a title’s profile to increase engagement.”

NEW YORK—In the Q3, 2022 earnings call for Warner Bros. Discovery, executives moved up the launch date for the combined HBO Max/Discovery+ streaming offering to the spring of 2023 and discussed a number of opportunities for increasing revenues that included raising prices and increasing the ad load. 

The company also promised to launch a FAST streaming service in 2023 in addition to its SVOD product. 

In Q3, WBD reported that total direct to consumer subscribers (DTC) were 94.9 million, an increase of 2.8 million global subscribers since the end of Q2 and that DTC reported revenues were $2,317 million, down 6% from the prior quarter. 

In the earnings call, David Zaslav, president and CEO said “with respect to direct-to-consumer we added nearly 3 million net global direct-to-consumer subs this quarter. And we expect a healthy inflection with the launch of our combined service and expanded global footprint. With that, we are excited to announce that we have moved up our U.S. launch date from summer of 2023 to spring.”

The company did not provide further information on the name of the new product or pricing.  During the call, Jean-Briac Perrette, CEO and president, Global Streaming and Interactive at the company also noted that “I'd say pricing is one of four things that makes us particularly optimistic about the products coming together, obviously content aggregation and pulling all the content pieces together.”

“[B]y 2023, HBO Max will not have raised prices since its launch. So it will have been three years, since pricing has moved, which we think is an opportunity, particularly in this environment. And number two, when we look internationally, our wholesale and retail ARPUs are meaningfully lower than the market leaders. And for us that spells opportunity and an ability as we think about the new product coming to market and even some initiatives before the new product comes to market for growth on ARPU internationally.”

Later in the call Zaslav also noted that “today we have about two to three minutes of ads in HBO Max ad-light, that's about half of what we have on Discovery Plus. So we think we have, as we roll the two combined products, almost 100% growth in the inventory available to us as we look to combine the ad loads of those two products.”

NEW YORK—After a record breaking premiere, HBO has renewed “House of the Dragon” for a second season even before the second episode of the series has aired. 

The first episode airing on August 21 attracted nearly 10 million viewers on the day of its premiere and HBO reported on August 26 that the episode had been seen by over 20 million viewers across linear TV, on demand and HBO Max platforms in the U.S. based on Nielsen and its own data.

Samba TV, meanwhile, reported on August 25 that within the Live +3 day window, 4.8 million U.S. households watched the “House of the Dragon” premiere on HBO and HBO Max. 

For context, 2.6 million U.S. households watched the premiere in its first 6 hours, meaning that the majority of viewership (54%) occurred during that time, Samba TV said. 

By comparison, 2.9 million U.S. households watched the “Stranger Things 4” premiere on Netflix in the L+3 window. 42% of its L+3 viewership occurred within the day it was released, indicating that more households were interested in watching “House of the Dragon” immediately, Samba Tv reported. 

“We are beyond proud of what the entire `House of Dragon’ team has accomplished with season one,” Francesca Orsi, executive vice president HBO Programming. "Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George, Ryan, and Miguel for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two.”

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has announced that the HBO Max series “Our Flag Means Death” used extensive Blackmagic Design products to create the stunning imagery for the pirate comedy.

The show was also a case study in virtual production at the 2022 NAB Show. 

Created by David Jenkins and starring Darby and Taika Waititi, “Our Flag Means Death” is executive produced by Waititi, who also directed the pilot, alongside Showrunner Jenkins, Producers Garrett Basch, and Dan Halsted.

One of the earliest challenges in creating the pirate adventure was visualizing the extensive storyline set on the high seas. Virtual Production Designer Sam Nicholson, ASC and his visual effects (VFX) team at Stargate Studios were tasked with using virtual production to make principal photography both manageable and cost effective. Nicholson’s solution was to capture ultra high resolution imagery of actual ocean footage, stitching together the multiple plates, then displaying them on a massive 30 foot by 160 foot LED wall that would surround the practical pirate ship built on set.

“We tend to take impossible tasks and make them possible,” said Nicholson. “How to shoot stable 48K 360 degree plates from a boat off of Puerto Rico is complex problem solving to the extreme.”

The task was challenging on several levels, including how to acquire the footage, manage the massive amounts of data, process it all seamlessly, and then deliver the imagery to set. Nicholson focused on a single pipeline solution using Blackmagic Design to create a streamlined approach. To start, he chose Blackmagic RAW for the most flexible camera format and planned to run it entirely through DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading, VFX and audio post production software for processing to maintain the most efficient pipeline possible.

Nicholson’s team started tests by shooting HDR plates with a 360 degree, eight camera stabilized rig using Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro digital film cameras placed at 45 degree increments. “To cover 360 degrees, a lot of processing is involved in creating a seamless image between the cameras,” added Nicholson.

The cameras were controlled using an ATEM Mini Extreme live production switcher, which was able to simultaneously trigger recording on all cameras, while also ensuring each camera had matching timecode.

As the process evolved through testing, the final plate shoot in Puerto Rico brought a refined approach, using a 270 degree multi camera array with five Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film cameras mounted on a stabilizing head, providing better control and even higher resolution. The Stargate Studios plate shooting team synchronized the five cameras for a total horizontal resolution of 60K.

“The Blackmagic 12K cameras gave us very high overall resolution with very efficient data output,” explained Nicholson. “Each take was five minutes, times five cameras at 12K resolution. So, the daily data transfer of camera originals from high speed SSDs to mass storage on location was a great solution.”

Shooting in Blackmagic RAW, the team was able to view real time playback in DaVinci Resolve Studio at multiple resolutions. “Blackmagic RAW filled a critical niche in our high resolution imaging,” continued Nicholson. “With any imaging system it's critical to pick the right workflow, the right gear and the right approach to data management. Recording in camera is easy. But then you have to offload it, transfer it, transcode it, distribute it, color time and process it to make it usable on set. Blackmagic RAW was very efficient in addition to looking great.”

In preparation for first unit photography, the Stargate Studios team processed the footage, stitching plates together in DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fusion page, and then created a live feed from multiple DaVinci Resolve Studio seats through the ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher. The final color timed composite was then fed into Epic’s Unreal Engine for camera tracking and off axis distribution to the 20K LED wall. While the live feed worked well, Nicholson found it valuable to record the final graded imagery to a disk based recorder for quicker access. The HyperDeck Extreme 8K HDR recorder played a critical role of recording the massive resolution images from DaVinci Resolve Studio and making them ready for instant playback.

While a pirate comedy like “Our Flag Means Death” seems like an unlikely project to embrace virtual production, the key for Nicholson was telling a convincing story, whether the viewer was aware of the magic behind the scenes or not. “Virtual production comes in all sizes and shapes,” said Nicholson. “It can be one OLED monitor all the way up to an LED wall the size of a football field. And ultimately, if it feels real, it’s better for everybody, from the actors to the director and, of course the viewer. But at any level, if you look at it and say to yourself, ‘this looks real,’ then we’ve done our job.”

NEW YORK—Following Q2 2022 earnings showing a decline in streaming subs in the U.S., Warner Bros. Discovery executives laid out a streaming strategy that emphasized a cost-conscious approach that the company believes will produce $1 billion in profits by 2025 and break-even by 2024. 

Executives reiterated their plans to combine their streaming efforts under one brand. But, the company did not address the question of the combined product’s branding and name. That issue produced rampant speculation over the last week with some outlets reporting that HBO Max would be folded into discovery+.

The combined service is expected to be launched in the summer of 2023 and roll out internationally in 2024. 

Executives said that they planned to launch the combined service in 2023 and that they expected the streaming offering to break even in 2024. They said peak losses for their streaming services would be 2022 but that they would hit 130 million subs in 2025, up from 92.1 million in Q2 2022. 

NEW YORK—As it announced a new strategy for its streaming operations, Warner Bros. Discovery reported that it added only 1.7 million direct-to-consumer subs worldwide in Q2, 2022, growing the Q1 sub count of 90.4 million to 92.1 million worldwide. 

In the U.S. DTC subs for HBO Max and discovery+ actually declined from 53.3 million in Q1 2022 to 53.0 in Q2 2022. 

The sluggish increase globally and the declines in the U.S. reflects in part a change to how the combined company reported subscribers. For example, HBO used to report unactivated subs under its deal with AT&T to offer HBO Max. Those are now excluded. 

“We've had a busy, productive four months since launching Warner Bros. Discovery, and have more conviction than ever in the massive opportunity ahead,” David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement. “We have the most powerful creative engine and bouquet of owned content in the world, as highlighted by our industry leading 193 Emmy nominations, and we intend to maximize the value of that content through a broad distribution model that includes theatrical, streaming, linear cable, free-to-air, gaming, consumer products and experiences, and more, everywhere in the world. We’re confident we’re on the right path to meet our strategic goals and really excel, both creatively and financially, and couldn’t be more excited about the future of our company.”

The company also reported a net loss of $3,418 million, and includes $2,004 million of amortization of intangibles, $1,033 million of restructuring and other charges, and $983 million of transaction and integration expenses.

Other highlights included: 

• Q2 total reported revenues were $9,827 million. Pro forma combined revenues decreased 1% ex-FX compared to the prior year quarter.
• Net loss available to Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. was $(3,418) million, and includes $2,004 million of amortization of intangibles, $1,033 million of restructuring and other charges, and $983 million of transaction and integration expenses.
• Total reported Adjusted EBITDA was $1,664 million. Pro forma combined Adjusted EBITDA decreased 31% ex-FX compared to the prior year quarter.
• Cash provided by operating activities increased to $1,011 million and reported free cash flow increased to $789 million.
• Ended Q2 with $3,896 million of cash on hand, gross debt of $53.0 billion, and net leverage of 5.0x.
• Ended Q2 with 92.1 million global DTC subscribers, an increase of 1.7 million versus 90.4 million subscribers at the end of Q1, as adjusted for the Company's new DTC subscriber definition. The new definition resulted in the exclusion of 10 million legacy Discovery non-core subscribers and unactivated AT&T mobility subscribers from the Q1 subscriber count.
• Warner Bros. Discovery was the #1 TV portfolio for total time spent by viewers in the U.S., TNT was the #1 TV network overall for Men 18-49 & 18-34, driven by sports, and TLC was the #1 cable network in the industry, ex-sports, in Primetime for Women 25-54.
• Re-extended the agreement with AT&T to continue to offer its internet and mobility customers access to HBO Max’s portfolio of original programming and series.

NEW YORK—CNN and its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery have announced that a dedicated CNN Originals hub will launch on discovery+ beginning August 19. 

The new hub on discovery+ will include CNN Original Series, CNN Films, and HLN Original Series.

The launch of the CNN Originals Hub on discovery+ comes at a time when there has been widespread speculation of how the discovery+ and HBO Max services will be combined. Warner Bros. Discovery had earlier announced that they would be brought together but has not said under what brand or how that would look. 

“We’re thrilled to expand the reach of CNN and HLN’s powerful nonfiction programming to subscribers of discovery+,” said Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN. “Our original series have an unrivaled ability to introduce and immerse audiences in stories of the people, places and cultures that make this world so fantastic and, at times, frightening. By offering our programming through discovery+, more people can explore and experience CNN’s premium content.”

“True crime, food and travel programming are among the most-watched genres for discovery+ viewers, so these titles from CNN will fit right in with our best-in-class collection of unscripted content,” said JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming. “We’re excited to offer our subscribers access to a comprehensive offering of CNN Original Series available to stream with their existing subscription.”

Subscribers will be able to enjoy over 800 episodes of current and legacy programming from the CNN Original Series and HLN Original Series library. 

Additional programming from CNN Films and CNN Original Series is available on HBO Max. The CNN Original Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? will also debut on HBO Max this fall.

“As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of CNN Original Series, this new collaboration allows us to share these smart and entertaining projects with a new and already engaged audience,” said Amy Entelis, executive vice president talent and content development, CNN Worldwide. “We know subscribers will enjoy exploring over 800 episodes of award-winning programming from CNN and HLN Original Series and CNN Films.”

In addition to this initial offering of CNN Originals available to stream, select CNN Original Series and HLN Original Series will be added to the CNN Originals Hub and stream on discovery+ in the future following their linear run on the cable networks. Titles will be announced in the months to come.

NEW YORK—"Game of Thrones” fans who can’t get enough of the struggle among the families competing for control of the Seven Kingdoms will have a new way to enjoy the show’s eight seasons in 4K Utra HD with High Dynamic Range (HDR) beginning in August when HBO Max launches HDR10 and Dolby Vision streams of the series.

The only alternative fans previously had to enjoy the series in 4K HDR was via an Ultra-HD Blu-ray player and the disk set. HBO Max will also make the series available with Dolby Atmos sound.

In a press release dated July 21, WarnerMedia, the parent company of HBO Max, announced the decision to begin 4K HDR stream. The company also plans to stream its new series, “House of the Dragon,” in 4K HDR as well as make an augmented reality app, “House of the Dragon: DracARys,” available in the Apple and Google Play stores.

To watch the 4K HDR streams, viewers will require an HBO Max subscription ($14.99), an internet connection, a 4K Ultra HD display with HDR support, such as a smart TV or certain media tablets like some Apple iPads, and a streaming device that supports 4K HDR, such as an Amazon Fire Stick 4K or Google Chromecast Ultra. (HBO Max has published a detailed list of what’s needed on its website.)

The 4K UHD HDR streams of the two series join more than 25 movies in the streamer’s library available with Dolby Vision HDR, including “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Ultimate Edition,” “King Richard,” “No Sudden Move” and the four “Matrix” movies.

HBO Max 4K content is available to Hulu subscribers as an add-on subscription. Other app stores include those from Apple, Google, Roku and Samsung TV.

More information is available on the HBO Max website. 

LONDON & NEW YORK—While widely publicized sub losses at Netflix have hammered the streamers stock price, a new report from Attest finds that usage of the platform continues to rise. In fact, Attest found that Netflix had the biggest growth in regular users of all the streaming services in Q1 2022 in the U.S.

In January, Netflix announced its first monthly subscription price increase in two years and by April it reported shedding 600,000 subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. 

Yet, Netflix had a 2.8 percentage point increase in people watching it at least once a week - taking its audience to 71.2% of working-age Americans in Q1 2022, Attest reported in its new “Quarterly UK and US Media Consumption Tracker.”

In sharp contrast, the research found that Amazon Prime, one of Netflix’s closest competitors, took a big hit, with a 5.2 percentage point reduction in weekly viewers in the US (now at 41.3%). And Amazon was not alone in losing viewers: HBO Max fell by 3.1 percentage points (at 26.4%) and Disney+ saw a 2.2 percentage point reduction in weekly users (at 32.4%).

With usage amongst consumers appearing to hold up, Netflix’s plans to crack down on password sharing could have a significantly negative impact on usage levels in future, the Attest researchers said. 

Number of hours Americans spend watching TV also creeped up in Q1 2022, Attest reported. 

The research found that binge watching of TV—across live, on-demand and streaming—increased by a 2.9 percentage point in Americans watching more than six hours of TV (up to 16% in Q1). There was also a 2.2 percentage point increase in those watching up to four hours in front of the TV (to 32.9%). 

In terms of social media in the U.S., the Attest report found that Twitter achieved little growth in usage in Q1. When compared with Q4 2021, Twitter achieved a tiny 0.9 percentage point increase in weekly users by the end of Q1 2022. 

Over the same period, it actually recorded a 0.5 percentage point increase in the number of people who say they ‘never’ use the platform - this figure now stands at half of working-age Americans (50%). 

This highlights the scale of Elon Musk’s job to take the platform forward if he eventually takes over the company, the researchers said. 

Facebook, Instagram and most of all, Snapchat, also saw a rise in ‘non-users’ this past quarter. 

Facebook and Instagram both saw their numbers of non-users increase (by 2.3 and 2.5 percentage points respectively). 

Snapchat had the highest loss of users from quarter to quarter of any platform, with a 3.3 percentage point increase in the number of people who never use it, leaving well over half of Americans (53.2%) as non-users.  

By contrast, TikTok was the only social media platform from this research to show growth amongst non-users -- achieving a 1 percentage point decline in Americans who ‘never’ use the service (from 47.7% in Q4 to 46.7% in Q1), the report explained.  

Finally, YouTube trumped all platforms with a significant spike in active, daily users - jumping by nearly 5 percentage points when compared to Q4 levels, meaning 52% of the public use this platform on a daily basis. 

More information on the report and studies are available here.  

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s The Gauge is reporting that streaming reached another record high in April, capturing 30.4% of total TV viewing and surpassing its previous record of 29.7% set in March 2022. 

While overall TV viewing dropped by 2.1% from March, streaming volume was virtually identical to the prior month, helping to increase its share by over 0.6%. 

Broadcast viewing was down 3% in April and lost 0.2 share points from March, falling to 24.7% of total TV viewing. The April data showed a nearly 15% decrease in content from the drama genre as season finales began to air, in addition to a 38% drop in sports on broadcast networks. Broadcast news viewing remained flat compared to March.

Cable also lost 0.2 share points in April and saw a month over month usage decline of 2.5%, which dropped its overall share of TV viewing to 36.8%. While sports viewing on cable increased 17% from March, driven primarily by both the NBA playoffs and the NCAA Final Four, cable news saw its first downward trend in several months (-16.9%) which hampered cable's overall share.

The Gauge also showed that HBO Max achieved a 1% share of streaming for the first time, allowing it to move out of the "Other Streaming" category and stand alongside fellow streaming platforms that have previously exceeded the 1% share threshold. 

The "Other Streaming" category, which includes any high-bandwidth video streaming on TV that is not individually broken out, has grown by more than two share points since The Gauge debuted with May 2021 data. This category's consistent growth reflects insights into audiences' rising engagement with the growing number of streaming platforms.

DALLAS—While Netflix reported sub losses this week, AT&T reported healthy growth for HBO and HBO Max, with HBO and HBO Max hitting 76.8 million global subs in Q1 2022.

That was up 12.8 million year from Q1 2021 and up 3.0 million from Q4, 2021. At the end of the quarter, there were 48.6 million domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers versus 44.2 million in the year-ago quarter, up 4.4 million year over year. 

With the recent completion of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, this is the last quarter that AT&T will be reporting. 

Revenues for WarnerMedia under AT&T for the first quarter were $8.7 billion, up 2.5% versus the year-ago quarter, driven by higher subscription revenues and higher content and other revenues, partially offset by lower advertising revenues. 

Subscription revenues were $4.0 billion, up 4.4%, primarily reflecting growth of HBO Max. 

Content and Other revenues were $3.1 billion, up 3.4%, driven by higher theatrical revenues, higher HBO Max licensing, and partially offset by lower TV licensing. 

Advertising revenues were $1.7 billion, down 3.0% year over year due to lower linear audiences and tough comparisons to the prior-year political environment, partially offset by higher sports.

But operating expenses totaled $7.4 billion, up 13.0% year over year and operating income was $1.3 billion, down 32.7% year over year, as a result of continued investments in HBO Max as well as in the launch of CNN+ at the end of the quarter. Operating income margin was 15.1%, compared to 23.0% in the year-ago quarter.

Warner Bros. Discovery is carrying about $58 billion in debt and the company will be taking a close look at ongoing costs and investments as it works to pay that debt down while funding investments needed to remain competitive in the streaming wars. 

LOS ANGELES—HBO Max has launched in 15 additional European countries, including the Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, making the WarnerMedia streaming platform available in 61 territories across Europe, the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.

Later this year HBO Max will expand to a further six countries – Turkey, Greece, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The platform launches with a promotion offering all customers in Central and Eastern Europe and Portugal more than 30% off the monthly price for the lifetime of their subscription. 

In the Netherlands, HBO Max launches with two tiers, both at 50% off the regular monthly subscription price for the life of the subscription. A monthly subscription to the standard tier (with HD 1080p, 4K, three concurrent streams, 30 downloads) is €3.99 and a monthly subscription to the basic tier (with HD 720p, one concurrent stream, five downloads) is €2.99.

“From today, HBO Max is streaming in 21 European countries with Central and Eastern Europe, Portugal and the Netherlands joining the Nordics, Spain and Andorra where we launched the platform last year,” said Christina Sulebakk, general manager, HBO Max EMEA. “Central and Eastern Europe is where it all began for our European business back in 1991 with our first linear channels and we’re pleased that today, more than 30 years later, we’re bringing fans in the region a completely new way to access all their favorite entertainment.”

The 15 countries where HBO Max launched today are: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

HBO Max launched in the U.S. in May 2020 and is rapidly rolling out globally. In June 2021, it became available in 39 territories in Latin America and the Caribbean and in October 2021 it arrived in Europe, launching in the Nordics, Spain, and Andorra.

ATLANTA—Turner Sports and the U.S. Soccer Federation have reached an eight-year multimedia rights agreement that will make TNT/TBS and HBO Max the exclusive English-language home to more than 20 Women’s and Men’s National Team matches each year. 

The Sports Business Journal has valued the deal at being worth more than $200 million. 

The new agreement, set to begin in 2023, marks HBO Max’s first big move into offering live sports on the streaming service. 

HBO Max will live stream more than 20 United States National Soccer Team matches each year. TNT or TBS will televise approximately half of those matches – all simulcast on HBO Max – with the remaining matches being exclusive to the rapidly growing streaming platform.

In addition, the deal will include digital and highlight rights for Bleacher Report and its portfolio brands, among additional content opportunities throughout the WarnerMedia portfolio, the companies said. 

“This is a significant milestone for Turner Sports and WarnerMedia, further demonstrating our commitment to the distribution of premium live sports content on HBO Max, while simultaneously fueling our leading entertainment networks, digital and social assets,” said Lenny Daniels, president, Turner Sports. “We’re excited to spotlight one of the most popular Women’s teams in the world, along with an ascending Men’s National Team, over the eight years of this agreement. This partnership offers us an opportunity to engage with their avid, young and diverse fan bases through all of our Turner Sports and Bleacher Report platforms.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Turner Sports at this amazing time for soccer in the United States," said U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone. “During our discussions it was clear how dedicated they are to growing soccer in the United States, especially their commitment to expand the women’s game. As we build towards 2026 and beyond, we have found a fantastic partner to spotlight the stories of our Women's and Men's National Teams."

Per the terms of the agreement, Turner Sports will be the exclusive domestic, English-language rightsholder for U.S. National Team World Cup qualifiers, National Team friendlies (including premium U.S. matches against Mexico), send-off matches and special events leading up to and following the World Cup and Olympic Games, and the SheBelieves Cup, among additional events involving the Women’s and Men’s National Soccer Teams.

Additional highlights of the deal include:

• Turner Sports and Bleacher Report will have exclusive rights to live event coverage, including the potential to create interactive companion broadcasting experiences and/or newly developed matches or tournaments; behind-the-scenes content, such as the opportunity to produce docuseries and ancillary programming; along with bespoke digital experiences, in association with both teams;
• Bleacher Report, including its leading B/R Football platform, will have expansive digital and highlight rights;
• Turner Sports will have TV Everywhere rights that will allow its networks to make these matches and related programming available to authenticated subscribers across all WarnerMedia platforms;
• The agreement also includes additional content and storytelling opportunities throughout the WarnerMedia portfolio, eCommerce rights, the possibility of integrating sports betting experiences, among others.

AMSTERDAM—HBO Max has confirmed that the second wave of European launches in 15 additional countries in Europe will take place on March 8. 

HBO Max is currently live in 46 territories across the Americas and Europe, with that rising to 61 with these launches. HBO Max is going global as part of a phased roll out and later this year will expand to a further six European countries including Greece and Turkey.

The 15 countries are: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.  

“HBO Max is a new streaming experience offering the very best entertainment, movies, original series and kids programming from Warner Bros., HBO, DC, Cartoon Network, Max Originals and more,” explained Christina Sulebakk, general manager, HBO Max EMEA. “We are thrilled to confirm that on March 8th, HBO Max is arriving in 15 additional European countries as we continue making the platform available across the continent and beyond.”

DALLAS, Texas—AT&T has reported new subscriber numbers for HBO Max and HBO, with the two services hitting 73.8 million subs at the end of 2021, up from 69.4 million subs around the world in Q3, 2021.

The numbers were revealed in a January 5, regulatory filing with the SEC issued prior to Pascal Desroches, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, AT&T Inc. providing an update to shareholders at Citi’s AppsEconomy Conference.

The new sub counts mean that HBO Max and HBO beat management’s prior guidance that end-of-year subscribers would be at the high end of its 70 million to 73 million subscriber target.

The filing did not provide a breakdown of subs in the U.S. or other details on the streaming operations. 

It is arguably the best time in history to be a content consumer. Gone are the days of relying on the Big Three (ABC, CBS and NBC) for news and entertainment. Today, between linear broadcasters and the flood of OTT services — a new one being introduced what seems like every day — consumers have more viewing options than ever before.

New streaming services continue to be launched. HBO Max, Roku Originals and IMDb TV joined the Big Three — Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu — as well as Disney+, Apple TV+, Peacock, Paramount+ and Discovery+ among the major entertainment choices.

Altogether in the United States there are over 100 OTT services and more than 1,000 worldwide, according to Dan Rayburn, principal analyst, Frost & Sullivan, who said that the growing OTT market is giving consumers more options to find their entertainment.

“Whether it’s cars or streamers, consumers love choice when it comes to services as a general rule,” said Rayburn.

But with choice comes confusion, and understandably so. The multitude of OTT services in the market, with prices shifting on a regular basis, has left consumers confused and wary of adding on more monthly fees.

“These services are going to get more expensive, so consumers are going to have to decide how much money they have to spend and which services are most important to them,” said Rayburn. “And that’s not going to change going down the road because you’re not going to have services combining.”

Consolidation is not likely to happen among the biggest worldwide OTT services, according to Rayburn, because conglomerates with different business models and ecosystems own them.

Liam Gaughan, a researcher at Parks Associates, agrees. “Larger players are less likely to merge due to their role as brand ambassadors for their respective entertainment companies,” he explained. “But consolidation will continue to be common among smaller and niche services.”

Some might say documentaries are a niche market, but with the boom in content services, according to Gaughan, that programming is essential to OTT service libraries.

“Nonfiction programming ranks high among viewers’ preferred content,” Gaughan said. “Of U.S. broadband households, 37 percent watch documentary content on the online video services they access. Nonfiction exclusive services such as CuriosityStream and Discovery+ have rapidly grown.”

While nonfiction content might be the sweet spot for several OTT services, Rayburn said that when it comes to what programming works for a streaming service is debatable.

“If you look at content, [each service] has their own formula based on who their audience is,” Rayburn said. “They have a formula and data, which they don’t share. What’s interesting, though, is to see how many times a formula doesn’t work. How many shows on Netflix and Amazon and Hulu get cancelled after a year? It’s a hard formula to figure out and a very expensive business.”

There’s no denying that the digital version of the Magnolia Network, the highly anticipated multimedia venture between Discovery and Chip and Joanna Gaines, helped Discovery+ when it launched in July with more than 150 hours of unscripted programming. 

Originally the plan was to launch Magnolia on the linear grid first, taking over Discovery’s DIY Network. The challenges of the pandemic altered that plan, pushing the linear takeover to January 2022 and making Magnolia a streaming exclusive for now.

Magnolia Network President Allison Page said that while the Gaineses already had plenty of viewership among all demographics, being on Discovery+ has introduced the duo to nonlinear audiences and has also “brought some of that linear audience over into streaming because they’re passionate about [the Gainses] and they are passionate about this brand. So, even though they don’t want to pay $5 more a month, they came to Discover+.” 

Content, as they say, is king and all the kings in this streaming war, or race, want to win. Only time will tell what OTT services survive. 

© NAB 2021

NEW YORK, N.Y.—Discovery has reported that its direct-to-consumer (DTC) efforts hit the 20 million sub milestone at the end of Q3 2021 and that its “next generation revenues” from subscription and advertising revenues generated from DTC products, as well as revenues from TV Everywhere, GO applications and other digital properties hit $425 million in the quarter.  

During the earnings call David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery stressed that there were opportunities to further grow their streaming operations after the merger with WarnerMedia is completed. 

“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,” he said. 

Zaslav also noted that there was relatively little overlap in the U.S. subs of Discovery+ and HBO Max. “At least here in the U.S., we believe less than half of Discovery+ subscribers are also HBO Max subscribers, which with the right packaging, provides a real opportunity to broaden the base of our combined offering,” Zaslav said, adding that there was also a “meaningful upside” in international markets.

Overall total revenues hit $3,150 million in Q3 2021, up 23% from a year earlier. But net income fell to $150 million, down 48% from a year earlier.

DALLAS, Texas—AT&T has reported new subscriber numbers for HBO Max and HBO, with the two services hitting 69.4 million subs around the world in Q3, 2021, a 12.5 million bounce from a year earlier, and 1.9 million higher than Q2, 2021. 

AT&T said the streaming service will reach the higher end of its forecast for 70 million to 73 million global subscribers by the end of 2021.

In the U.S. the two services had 45.2 million subs in Q3, 2021, up 7.1 million in the past year. 

But domestic subscriber counts were down from 47.0 million in Q2 2021 because the company removed HBO from the Amazon wholesale platform, a decision that also slowed global sub growth in Q3, the company said. 

Domestic ARPU was $11.82 for the services.

AT&T also reported that operating revenue in the direct-to-consumer segment hit $2.04 billion in Q3, 2021, up from $1.62 billion a year earlier, while direct costs hit $2.04 billion, up from $1.55 billion in Q3, 2020.  

More on the results for other divisions can be found here and here. 

 COPENHAGEN—During a virtual event, HBO Max outlined its launch plans for the service in Europe, announcing that it will launch in 27 territories during the initial phase of its European rollout. The launch will include seven new countries in addition to the 20 territories already confirmed.

HBO Max will bring together the brands of Warner Bros., HBO, DC, Cartoon Network and Max Originals in one place for the first time in Europe and will include Warner Bros. movies 45 days after theatrical release this year in the Nordics and next year in Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Greece, Iceland and Central and Eastern Europe

The company is also offering a discount in the Nordics and a new annual subscription offer that will provide 12-months for the price of eight. 

HBO Max will launch first in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain, and Andorra on 26th October 2021 and then in Central & Eastern Europe and Portugal in 2022. The seven newly announced launch territories—the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—will also go live in 2022. 

“HBO Max is coming to Europe, bringing with it the best films and TV from 100 years of Warner Bros. together with HBO, Max Originals, DC and Cartoon Network”, said Johannes Larcher, head of HBO Max International. “From Singin’ in the Rain to The Matrix, Game of Thrones to Mare of Easttown, The Flight Attendant to Gossip Girl, Superman to The Joker, and Bugs Bunny to Scooby Doo, we truly have something for everyone in the family to enjoy, with a superior viewing experience. Soon HBO Max will have lit up in 27 territories in Europe, and 67 around the world – and we’re not finished yet, with much more to come as we aspire to be present in 190 territories by 2026.”

HBO Max will also be rolling out on a new, global technology platform for the service bringing with it an enhanced streaming experience with new product features and functionalities, serving up content tailored to individual users through bespoke curation and recommendations, the company said. 

HBO Max replaces existing HBO-branded streaming services in 20 territories in the Nordics, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe and will be available to both new customers as well as existing customers, billed either directly or via eligible partners, the streamer said. 

BURBANK, Calif.—Following its decision to take HBO off Amazon Prime Video Channels on September 15, HBO Max is trying to mitigate the potential subscriber losses by offering 50% discounts to users who had subscribed to HBO through Amazon. 

Some reports have estimated that the decision to leave Amazon might cost HBO Max as many as 5 million subs. 

This new limited time promotion of $7.49 per month for up to six months is available through September 26, with customers being able to sign up at HBOMax.com or via the following distribution partners: Apple, Google, LG, Microsoft, Sony, Roku and Vizio.

In launching the promotion, the company noted that the HBO Max ad-free plan will continue to offer day-and-date premieres of Warner Bros. films in the US, arriving in theaters and on the platform on the same day through the end of the year. 

Currently, in theaters and on the platform is "Malignant," the latest creation from the Conjuring universe. "Cry Macho," from Clint Eastwood, arrives on September 17, followed in October by "The Many Saints of Newark," a Sopranos story, and the highly anticipated Dune. November brings King Richard, with Will Smith as the father determined to write his daughters, Venus and Serena, into history. "The Matrix Resurrections," the latest in the groundbreaking franchise, arrives in December, the streamer said. 

The streaming service made the decision to exit Amazon in November of 2020 when its deal ended in 2021 so that it would have more control over its subscribers. 

COPENHAGEN—HBO Max has announced that its first European launches will occur on October 26 in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain and Andorra.

As part of the phased global rollout of the service, WarnerMedia plans to launch HBO Max in 2022 to the 14 additional territories: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. 

Additional, as yet unspecified territory launches, are also planned for next year, the company said. 

“This is a historic moment as HBO Max lands in Europe,” said Johannes Larcher, head of HBO Max International. “WarnerMedia movies and series like `Harry Potter,’ `Game of Thrones’ and `The Big Bang Theory’ are passionately consumed by fans all across Europe, and HBO Max has been created to provide them with the most intuitive and convenient viewing experience to watch these and a diverse range of other amazing titles.”

“The unique and exclusive combination of iconic content from Warner Bros., HBO, DC, Cartoon Network, Max Originals, including local productions and more, creates a streaming platform that fans in Europe will love,” added Christina Sulebakk, general manager, HBO Max EMEA. “We see enormous potential as we roll-out the all-new, supercharged streaming platform across the region.”

HBO Max will be available to new customers as well as existing customers of HBO España, HBO Nordic and HBO Go (billed either directly or via eligible partners), the company explained. 

PALO ALTO, Calif.—In a new report, Wurl Analytics has quantified some of the hefty costs streamers face by high churn rates, reporting that the four top SVOD services lost $80.2 million in April of 2021 alone. 

The `Churn Analysis Report 2021’ found that HBO Max had the biggest losses ($33.1 million), followed by Netflix ($17.3 million), Hulu ($15.1 million) and Disney+ ($14.7 million) in April. 

The report stressed that churn doesn’t just involve lost subscription revenue. It also noted that churn rates increase marketing expenses. 

In the US alone, the same four services - Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max - collectively spent nearly $50 million in media, but nearly $20 million is attributable to reducing churn, the report found. 

Disney+, HBO Max and ViacomCBS experienced monthly churn rates ranging from 2% to 7%, the report also reported. 

To meet their stated subscriber goals, large SVOD platforms must add hundreds of millions of subscribers just to replace those that churn, Wurl Analytics noted.

It estimates that between 2021 and 2024, Disney+ will churn 333.1 million subscribers, requiring it to attract 472.5 million subscribers in order to reach its stated growth target of between 230 million to 260 million global subscribers by the end of 2024. 

For HBO Max to meet its goal of 150 million subscribers after churn, it needs to acquire 302.6 million new subscribers. 

ViacomCBS's suite of SVOD services needs 210.4 million additions to hit their goals of 150 million subscribers by 2025 and 70 million subscriber additions to hit their goal of 70 million subscribers by 2024.3

"Churn is not a new problem in the video business, of course, but with the advent of streaming services, subscriber churn has escalated and accelerated due to the fact that it is much easier to cancel a streaming subscription than it is to cancel a conventional cable subscription," said Sean Doherty Jr., head of Wurl Analytics. "With this report, we are providing a snapshot of the actual financial impact churn is having on streamers. It is the first of several reports Wurl Analytics will publish each year aimed at providing the streaming TV business with valuable data insights to help inform better business and marketing decisions."

The Churn Report Analysis Report 2021 is available for download here.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.—LG Electronics USA and WarnerMedia announced that the HBO Max app is now available on LG Smart TVs in the U.S., including its line-up of LG OLED TVs. 

The launch will make it easier for subscribers to access the popular streaming platform's full portfolio of premium content and comes on the heels of the launch of HBO Max on LG Smart TVs across select territories in Latin America and the Caribbean in June.

With the launch, LG Smart TV owners will be able to access HBO Max on the TV's webOS platform by opening the HBO Max app using their remote or when available, by saying "HBO Max" into their LG Magic Remote.

The launch also comes right before the release of the Warner Bros. feature film The Suicide Squad, which debuts in theaters and on HBO Max on August 5. 

ENGLEWOOD, Co.—Dish Network and WarnerMedia have ended a lengthy three year carriage dispute that will allow subscribers to access the HBO Max streaming service and will restore HBO and Cinemax to Dish TV’s channel line-up.

Dish is the last of the major operators to add HBO Max. HBO has not been available on Dish since 2018.

The deal means that subscribers can now access HBO Max streaming platform and HBO and Cinemax linear networks with a wide portfolio of on-demand content. Tied to the launch and for a limited time, Dish is also offering customers a 10-day free preview to access HBO and Cinemax. 

“Our number one priority at Dish is and always has been to provide our customers the best entertainment experience,” said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. “Our customers now have greater choice in the content they can access. HBO Max and Cinemax offer iconic, beloved and acclaimed content that our customers will enjoy.”

Dish TV customers can subscribe to the HBO Max Ad Free plan for $12 per month for up to 12 months when they subscribe by October 27, 2021, a discount off its standard $14.99 per month pricing, the companies reported. The subscription includes access to the entire HBO service, DC’s iconic superheroes, exclusive Max Originals and major Warner Bros. movies.

“When we launched HBO Max, we set out to make it available to customers everywhere they chose to access premium content, and today’s launch with Dish is a key addition to our distribution strategy for the platform,” said Scott Miller, executive vice president of business & legal affairs for WarnerMedia. “We’re excited that Dish customers can now access all that HBO Max – as well as our premium linear networks –have to offer.”

On-demand HBO and Cinemax content requires an internet-connected Dish Hopper or Wally. Access to the HBO Max app requires a compatible streaming device and internet connection. The 10-day free preview runs from August 6 through August 15. 

DALLAS, Texas—AT&T’s second quarter results showed faster than expected growth for HBO Max and HBO subscribers, with U.S. subs jumping by 10.7 million over the last year and global subs climbing by 12 million to 67.5 million at the end of the second quarter. 

In announcing the results John Stankey, AT&T CEO noted that “HBO Max had another strong quarter and is ahead of plan to be a leading direct-to-consumer streaming platform, with both subscriber- and ad-supported choices. As a result, we’re raising our global HBO Max year-end forecast to 70 million to 73 million subscribers.”

AT&T is in the process of selling WarnerMedia to Discovery, creating a combined company that will be called Warner Bros. Discovery when the deal closes.  

In the earnings call, AT&T also noted that HBO Max and HBO were pulling in ARPUs of $11.90 and that total direct to consumer subscriptions at WarnerMedia were up nearly 40%.