US telecom giant AT&T announced on Monday that it will merge its WarnerMedia with Discovery, paving way for the creation of another streaming giant.
The deal with bring together movie giant Warner Bros, HBO, CNN and other networks along with Discovery channel, Animal Planet, TLC and more.
"This agreement unites two entertainment leaders with complementary content strengths and positions the new company to be one of the leading global direct-to-consumer streaming platforms," AT&T chief executive John Stankey said in a statement.
"It will support the fantastic growth and international launch of HBO Max with Discovery's global footprint and create efficiencies which can be re-invested in producing more great content to give consumers what they want."
The WarnerMedia-owned HBO has a long list of popular shows like Succession and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Not to forget the fact that, HBO scripted history last year by taking away the most number Emmys than any network or streaming platform. In its library of hugely successful shows, the HBO boasts of Game of Thrones, Sopranos and more. The Warner Bros studio owns Harry Potter, Batman franchises, and also has a slew of successful series in its kitty. Discovery joins in with its most popular shows, along with Oprah Winfrey’s network which it owns.
The merger is part of a plan to increase AT&T’s content pool as the streaming race gets tougher. Netflix is far ahead in the race with over 200 million subscribers. Both HBO and Discovery took the plunge recently with the launch of HBO Max and Discovery+ respectively. HBO Max, together with the HBO cable network has about 44 million customers, while Discovery has 15 million global streaming subscribers, most of them for its Discovery+ app, The New York Times stated in a report.
Discovery's president and chief executive David Zaslav is set to lead the joint company. Zaslav said the combined company would spend about $20 billion on content per year.
