HBO Max and Discovery+ to combine streaming services

ENTERTAINMENT

HBO Max and Discovery+ are combining next year

Frank Pallotta

CNN Digital

Published Friday, August 5, 2022 10:26AM EDT

In this Jan. 15, 2020, shows televisions executives at the HBO Max Executive Sessions panel during the HBO TCA 2020 Winter Press Tour at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

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and Discovery+ are finally joining forces.

The long-awaited merger of the two services will debut in the U.S. next summer before being rolled out overseas, announced on Thursday during its second quarter earnings call.

The company did not say if the new offering would have a different name than HBO Max and did not announce pricing for the new service.

Warner Bros. Discovery added that it plans to have 130 million global subscriptions with its streaming offering by 2025.

The announcement that the two services would be combined isn't exactly new. Warner Bros. Discovery, which is also the parent company of CNN, has been open about bringing together its two streaming services since the creation of Warner Bros. Discovery this spring.

However, it's a notable move considering that the service would be a heavy hitter in scripted entertainment with HBO and in the unscripted entertainment realm with Discovery+.

The company said that in the second quarter of 2022, HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+ had a combined 92.1 million subscribers, which is up 1.7 million subscribers from the prior quarter.

The company said that it would announce more information around the service at an investor event it plans before the end of the year.

As for the company's second quarter results, it reported US$9.8 billion in revenue and a substantial loss of US$3.42 billion. The company's stock fell in after hours trading by roughly 12 per cent.