With HBO Max and Discovery+ Expected to Merge, Streamers Debate Scale vs. Brand Identity

HBO Max launched a new limited-time deal for new and returning customers. The streaming service is offering 30% off a one-year subscription when signing up and prepaying the full year. If you've been waiting for an opportunity to catch up on HBO Max's Emmy-winning show  and the new prequel series , then this might be it. With the HBO Max deal, you can sign up for a year of the ad-free plan for  $104.99 (regularly $149.99) or get HBO Max with ads for $69.99 (regularly $99.99). Compared with the streamer's regular month-to-month pricing, the discount represents a 42% savings. HBO Max’s latest offer is good for a single year’s subscription and after the 12-month discount period, subscriptions will auto-renew at the regular subscription price. Don't miss out on this limited-time deal to sign up for a discounted HBO Max yearly subscription before the promotion ends on October 30, 2022. When you sign up for 12 months of HBO Max, you save over 40% compared to a month-by-month plan.

Sunday night at 9:00 pm Eastern Standard time the long-awaited Game Of Thrones prequel titled ‘House Of The Dragon’ premiered on HBO Max. Fans of Games of Thrones have been looking forward to new content for a very long time as the original show ended on May 19th, 2019.

“House of the Dragon” on Sunday evening — but some viewers were in for an infuriating night when the much-anticipated 10-episode series finally dropped after months of hype.So many fans were trying to stream the show simultaneously — that HBO Max actually crashed. This led to thousands of users not being able to watch the first episode.Many subscribers reportedly fell victim to the streamer’s app fizzling out, with the website outage service Down Detector reporting that there were at about 3,000 blackouts between 8:40 p.m. and 9:25 p,.m.

The upcoming 53rd season will be available on the streaming service, the outlet reported.HBO and “Sesame Street” joined forces in 2015, which gave the streaming service priority to air all new episodes first, before it can be seen on the show’s longtime home, PBS. This agreement is effective until The “Sesame Street” cut comes after HBO made an announcement on Wednesday saying that at least 36 additional shows will be leaving the platform this week. That includes 20 HBO original shows, as well as “Generation,” “Infinity Train,” and earlier this month, all eight of the “Harry Potter” films were axed.Warner Bros.

Sunday night at 9:00 pm Eastern Standard time the long-awaited Game Of Thrones prequel titled ‘House Of The Dragon’ premiered on HBO Max. Fans of Games of Thrones have been looking forward to new content for a very long time as the original show ended on May 19th, 2019.

The much-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon premiered on HBO Max with some hiccups for some subscribers. As the first episode was launched online, some users reported the app crashing which prompted them to seek help.

HBO Max is axing about 200 episodes of "Sesame Street" from its streaming platform. Warner Bros. Discovery recently became the new owners of HBO Max, which could tie into the reasoning behind the content purge.

At the end of a day that saw about 70 (14%) staffers in his divisions getting laid off, Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer for HBO & HBO Max, just sent an email to his team about the cuts as well as his new (old) senior HBO/Max scripted executive team of Amy Gravitt, Francesca Orsi and Sarah Aubrey which includes new responsibilities for Gravitt and Aubrey.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeAfter weeks of speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery is ready to reveal some of the changes that will take place at HBO Max, in advance of next year’s anticipated combination of the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services. And as expected, HBO Max will downsize its reality programming department.

The dreaded post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs have reached the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys.

It was announced last week that Warner Bros. Discovery would indeed be combining streaming services Discovery+ and HBO Max into a single app that will launch in the United States next summer.

After a few days of mass uncertainty, with folks on social media wondering what is going on at one of the biggest studios in Hollywood, Warner Bros. Discovery has shed some light on the company’s future.

Good afternoon Insiders. We have truly entered holiday season but in TV and film Land things simply don’t slow down. I’m Max Goldbart and here’s your list of the week’s biggest headlines.

HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge to become one streaming service next year.In a second quarter earnings call on Thursday (August 4), Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav announced that the merged streamer will launch in the summer of 2023 in the US, with Latin America, Europe and other territories to follow soon after. The combined streaming service will be released with ad-free, ad-light and ad-only options.As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Zaslav addressed concerns that the merger would result in less emphasis on original programmes.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorWarner Bros. Discovery is not going to say how many HBO and HBO Max customers it has.In the second quarter, the media conglomerate said HBO Max, HBO and Discovery+ subscribers combined were 92.1 million, up about 1.6 million from 90.4 million the prior quarter. That’s up 22% 75.8 million on a pro-forma basis versus a year earlier.However, WBD’s streaming businesses lost subscribers domestically in Q2, dropping 300,000 — falling from 53.3 million in the first quarter to 53.0 million as of June 30.For Q1, AT&T — the prior owner of WarnerMedia and HBO Max — had reported 76.8 million total HBO and HBO Max subscribers worldwide, including 48.6 million domestically.

There are some interesting, somewhat odd things happening over at Warner Bros. Discovery, huh? Obviously, we have yesterday’s news that “Batgirl” and the new “Scoob!” films are both being shelved even though they were seemingly close to being finished.

Six hit Warner Bros. movies were quietly removed from HBO Max and fans are not happy.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorWarner Bros. Discovery has been quietly culling content from HBO Max — including several Warner Bros.