The date for the big launch of HBO Max and Discovery Plus' merged application has been moved up as Warner Bros Discover was pleased with the progress of the integration.
A woman takes a selfie with the logo at Warner Bros. World, the first-ever Warner branded indoor theme park, in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on July 27, 2018. - The park officially opened to the public on July 25 after two years of construction. GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Image
(Photo : GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Image) A woman takes a selfie with the logo at Warner Bros. World, the first-ever Warner branded indoor theme park, in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on July 27, 2018. - The park officially opened to the public on July 25 after two years of construction.
Launch of HBO Max and Discovery Plus
As Warner Bros. Discovery reports its third-quarter earnings for this year with Wall Street analysts, The Verge reported that Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav announced that the launch date for the merged services of HBO Max and Discovery Plus will be moved from Summer 2023, its original release, to Spring 2023.
However, no details regarding the pricing and subscription tiers were offered by Perrette during the earnings call. Despite this, it seems like the company was not hesitant about increasing its prices. Discovery Streaming & Gaming President and Chief Executive Officer addressed the pricing for the upcoming service that the company will be offering.
Perrette predicts that the prices will go "north" and that the company envisions that the increase will be an opportunity especially since we are currently experiencing high inflation with the world economy. As per Deadline, he stated that the increase will not be unusual since every streaming platform have already done it such as Netflix with $15.49 and even Apple TV with $6.99.
Ever since the streaming service was launched in May 2020, HBO Max has been charging their subscribers $15 a month. They also added a new tier in their subscription lines as they introduced an ad-supported tier that costs $10 a month. Meanwhile, Discovery Plus charges their subscribers $6.99 a month and $4.99 a month if it's with ads.
As the company develops new strategies for its pricing, Perrette sees opportunities for the international average revenue per user that they have been receiving from the wholesale and retail subscription, which is lower than what the market leaders are receiving compared to them.
During the earnings call, the company presented the combined direct-to-consumer subscriber base for HBO, HBO Max, & Discover Plus and it reached up to 94.9 million.
Variety reported that despite these high numbers, Warner Bros. Discovery only increased its worldwide accounts to 2.8 million over the second quarter. During the third quarter, the company also reported that they have a net loss of $2.3 billion, including the $1.9 billion of pre-tax amortization from the acquisition assets and the $1.52 billion for other charges.
These numbers were acknowledged by Zaslav who stated, "We are reimagining and transforming the organization for the future while driving synergy enterprise-wide, increasing our target to at least $3.5 billion, and making significant progress on our combined DTC product."
