WarnerMedia merged with Discovery: investors of both entertainment giants have definitively approved the operation over the weekend. Among the most concrete practical consequences will be the merger of the two streaming services, namely HBO Max and Discovery Plus, into one all-encompassing one.
The technical and economic details of the initiative are not yet known precisely, but it is already clear that Warner (which, remember, is owned by the telecommunications corporation AT&T), intends to do rather quickly – the deadlines declared to investors are in the order of “months, not years”. However, it is very likely that there will be an intermediate phase in which there will simply be discounts and promotions for those who subscribe to both platforms.
It is important to note that although HBO Max is not currently available in Italy, the news also interests us. First of all, because Discovery Plus exists here (and costs € 3.99 per month), and also because Warner has already confirmed plans to further expand HBO Max later this year. It is worth mentioning that the service arrived in Europe as early as last October, but only in Spain, Andorra, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. To have a minimum reference, the Spanish and Finnish subscription price monthly is € 8.99.
According to the most recent analyzes, HBO Max had approximately 73.8 million paying subscribers at the end of 2021; Discovery a total of 22 million, but the figure also includes the Food Network cable channel, GolfTV, Eurosport Player and the YouTube channel GCN (Global Cycling Network). For comparison, we recall that Disney Plus is around 118 million, Netflix around 222 million. The two services are very different from each other – let’s even say complementary: HBO Max focuses on movies and TV series, while Discovery focuses on documentaries, education, sports and other television entertainment formats.
