According to reports, the newly combined platform will debut in the US some time in the summer of 2023 and in other countries in 2024. Although the service’s name hasn’t been made public yet, IGN reports that there have been some “strong signs” that the name won’t contain the word “HBO” at all. Instead, it may go by a completely different name.
Getting a Bigger Audience
HBO Max and Discovery+ presently have 92 million customers combined, per NBC News, but Warner Bros. By 2025, Discovery expects that figure to reach 130 million globally.
A Plan in the Making
It appears that no pricing structure has yet been disclosed, but Zaslav asserted that the business is thinking about offering a free version of the platform that is financed by advertisements. The current HBO Max tier with advertisements is $9.99 a month.
With the cancellation of Batgirl, it would seem that these would bring fans farther from the service, but perhaps a merger is just what the two would need in terms of getting more customers and money flowing in.