HBO Max will be replaced by a new service next year with Discovery Plus

HBO Max will be replaced by a new service next year with Discovery Plus

HBO Max isn't dead...yet. But it will happen in the summer of 2023, and a new service will replace both HBO Max and Discovery Plus, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said on an earnings call today.

“HBO Max has a competitive feature set, but it has performance and customer issues,” said Zaslav, adding that I’m much more modest about the app, which regularly struggled to stream as people like Euphoria grew older. Is. Tune in for an appointment show and succession. He claimed that Discovery Plus has an improved technology stack and will become the core of the new service that will combine content from HBO Max with content and technology from Discovery Plus.

“We think the product is going to be great,” Zaslav said later in the call after assuring listeners that the company would not go on an HBO Max-focused cancellation spree. This news has come after a week of restlessness for the users. Earlier in the week, the company decided to remove almost the entire Batgirl from the release calendar and lock it in the vault. Additional movies exclusively for HBO Max disappeared from the service—but are still available to buy or rent. The Wrap then reported that things were looking grim for HBO Max and the creative development teams working there.

Zaslav attempted to allay those fears during the call, insisting that HBO Max programming was overall good and largely supported by the company. During the question-and-answer segment of the call, Zaslav said that HBO Max has begun to be a brand in its own right — and is exclusively tied to quality. It's unclear what Warner Bros. Discovery will call the new combined service, but it's sure we'll hear more as Zaslav makes even more reshuffles at his new company in the coming year.