HBO Max/Discovery+ Merger

[navychop]

they can only film 10 minutes at a time.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

I get HBO free from ATT. I pay for Discovery+ directly add free $6.99. I Frear loosing HBO for free so instead of only $6.99 I will be paying $19.99 or $13.00 more than now! On good news Paramount with Showtime went from $12.99 to only $9.99. I tried Walmart+ which only gives you Paramount+ BASIC! and they will not credit you to upgrade!

 

[Josephinelcajon]

FYI. In surveys I was given a list of streaming services some I did not know about.

 

[Yespage]

I honestly don't see the need for UHD unless you are watching on a screen that is too large to look at all at once. I'd rather they just do HD with HDR. That makes a bigger difference to my eyes than UHD does. Although, even HDR is only really noticeable in some scenes, but it helps with the dark scenes which are so popular these days.

It is superior but often hard to discern. Scenes with a high range in brightness is where HDR is incredible. The resolution increase requires a massive screen.

I think the HDR will also likely benefit more in the future as the cinematography is shot with it in mind.

 

[DS0816]

I support people getting what they want. I, however, do not care about 4K. This may not get mentioned by many people…but, I don’t find myself thinking about it as the programmers never kept up with the technology of televisions (4K and beyond). So, I figured, never mind.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

I noticed today that all the shows I watch on Discovery are not being updated with the new seasons that just started. Such as Gold Rush, White Water, Deadliest Catch, Parkers Trail.

 

[lakebum431]

Pretty sure they don't have day and date (meaning the same day release) on Discovery+ due to the affiliate agreements, but don't know how long it takes for them to show up.

 

[Bruce]

Some things were before, same day or day after, it varies.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

Pretty sure they don't have day and date (meaning the same day release) on Discovery+ due to the affiliate agreements, but don't know how long it takes for them to show up.

I am aware and yes very few will air the same day release. Some of these were from a week ago but I see they are now catching up like Parkers Trail just posted the first two at once.

 

[meStevo]

Earnings out today - US streaming business turned a profit for the first time this past quarter and the direct to consumer business is expected to be profitable as a whole this year, rather than 1-2 years from now as they'd consistently forecast.

MSN

 

[Bruce]

Earnings out today - US streaming business turned a profit for the first time this past quarter and the direct to consumer business is expected to be profitable as a whole this year, rather than 1-2 years from now as they'd consistently forecast.

MSN

Someone going to be upset because of this.

A streaming service turning profitable and the #4 cable company looking to get rid of it’s unprofitable video service.

Who would of thought of this.

As I said before, the next two years will be a time of transition, by the end, we should know who will make it and who will not.

 

[SamCdbs]

Did you read the story?

Quotes:

The company posted a big loss

Warner Bros. Discovery expects the U.S. streaming business to be profitable this year, earlier than expected.

Internationally, streaming still lost money..

He has aggressively cut back on content spending, to jump-start efforts to make the business profitable.

Warner Bros. Discovery lost $930 million ... in the quarter..

The company's cable networks segment brought in $5.6 billion in the quarter.

So, this unprofitable venture had a paper profit in a quarter, in one country, but still is losing money and still will lose money, even in the one country this year, but has a, as always unstated, "plan". That isn't a profit for the year, and the CEO, if you read through all the meaningless mumbo jumbo like "synergy" and "dynamic" and other business school words that all translate into "I don't have a clue" admits, as predicted and in contradiction to googled up and out of thin air protestations, like all other streamers, it is "aggressively" cutting content production. Aggressively.

In 10 years TV will look a lot more like Pluto than Paramount. We can argue about which streamer has the best rerun wad.

 

[Yespage]

Warner Bros. Discovery is adding Discovery+ content to HBO Max and relaunching the service as Max in the U.S. later this month. Zaslav had previously promised its streaming business will be break-even by 2024 and profitable by 2025. He has aggressively cut back on content spending, including eliminating shows and movies from Max, to jump-start efforts to make the business profitable.

So, the plan is to starve it to lower costs and that'll make it profitable... except if they starve it from programming, then people will stop subscribing.

The U.S. direct-to-consumer segment turned a profit of $50 million for the quarter, a $704 million year-over-year improvement on a pro forma combined basis.

"Pro forma combined basis"? Is that Latin for "Take with grain of salt"?

 

[Bruce]

So, the plan is to starve it to lower costs and that'll make it profitable... except if they starve it from programming, then people will stop subscribing

I have saying it for awhile, cut down on HBO type programing and replace it with the cheaper Discovery type program, which is already paid for by airing on the cable channels first.

."Pro forma combined basis"? Is that Latin for "Take with grain of salt"?

A lot of salt, considering all those HBO shows they touted at the presentation will not be on anytime soon.

House of Dragon Season 2, still filming and then the effects have to be done, maybe it will be on the end of the year, my guess is next year.

Last of Us Season 2, scripts work not even close to be done, filming was not due to be started till late Fall, that will now be delayed because of the strike, earliest it will be on, late next year.

New Harry Potter series, early, early pre-production , no scripts yet, no actors hired yet, 2-3 years away.

Lost all new Films from Universal (went to Peacock), Fox ( went to Hulu/Disney) and Columbia/Sony ( went to Netflix).

Replaced them with nothing from Film Studios, but we get every episode of Guy’s Grocery Games……….yay.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

Confirmed: DIRECTV STREAM Customers Will Still Get Discounted HBO Max Rate When Max Rolls Out

 

[RedPenguin]

It looks like WD is going to continue to use Roku & Tubi for their free/ad-supported streaming for the time being.

Warner Bros. Discovery Gives an Update on Its New Free Streaming Service Called 'WBTV' | Cord Cutters News

For some time now, we have known that Warner Bros. Discovery has been planning a free streaming service. So what should we expect from it? What will it offer? Last week during Warner Bros. Discovery’s 1st quarter 2023 earnings call, we got a few but not many insights into the plans for the...

cordcuttersnews.com

It looks like ad-rates are terrible at the moment and WD decided to just use current platforms than worry at the moment if launching a 3rd platform.

 

[lakebum431]

"Pro forma combined basis"? Is that Latin for "Take with grain of salt"?

No, that is because they merged the two companies last year so in order to present a comparable number they must include that language so as not to get slapped by the SEC for a non-GAAP presentation.

 

[meStevo]

Live sports coming to Max, nothing specific

Sadly that is all we know at this time, but for sports fans, you may soon be able to watch many of your favorite events with Max. Warner Bros. Discovery has a huge lineup of sporting partnerships, including the NBA, MLB, and NHL, along with March Madness Men’s NCAA tournament.​

Warner Bros. Discovery Plans to Add Live Sports to Max | Cord Cutters News

Today during Warner Bros. Discovery’s 2023 Upfront event, they announced that its new HBO Max rebranded service Max would be adding live sports in the future. Sadly Warner Bros. Discovery stopped short of getting any details other than to say they will announce more details in the future. This...

cordcuttersnews.com

 

[NashGuy]

I can't find any other source reporting this, but if this is true, it's a pretty big deal, IMO:

"Warner Bros. Discovery announced that all new shows that air on their networks will premiere on Max the same night."

HBO Max's Rebranded Max Service Will Offer Same Day New Episodes & Just 4 Minutes of Ads Per Hour | Cord Cutters News

Today Warner Bros. Discovery heled its Upfront event to promote its new streaming service, upcoming fall season, and more to advertisers and customers. During that event Discovery confirmed some new details about its new Max streaming service. This newly merged service will, according to Warner...

cordcuttersnews.com

I understand this to mean that new episodes of series airing on their basic cable channels will be available to stream that same night on Max, as is already the case with HBO shows. Right now, most content from those cable channels isn't even available next-day on HBO Max or Discovery+, much less same-day.

If that's what they're going to do, that's taking a big step toward having Max effectively duplicate WBD's piece of the cable bundle. Max may not include live streams of their linear cable channels (yet), but may be set to offer all their new content on-demand the same time as it airs on cable. The only big things that would be missing are live sports and live news (CNN). And, as the post above states, it looks like they may be bringing at least some of TNT's and/or TBS's live sports to Max too, following the lead of Peacock, which live streams nearly all the sports aired across NBCU's networks.

I've said for awhile now that I think this is the logical evolution of DTC streaming services that are owned by traditional TV companies: include all the new content airing on their legacy broadcast/cable nets in the DTC app, while also offering additional streaming-exclusive new content too.

 

[Yespage]

Why in the world would anyone pay for ads for the live premiere unless debuting on Max also comes with those ads?