HBO Max might be in a little trouble
The war between streaming services has been a nail-bitter recently. Despite securing an early lead by, ya know, pioneering the concept, Netflix has been hemorrhaging money and users like no tomorrow. Newcomer Peacock, the official NBC service, failed to gain any new paid subscribers in their last quarter. Streaming services may be the future of entertainment, but several of them are having difficulty finding their sea legs at present.
HBO Max is another example of a streaming service going through some growing pains. Although they came out the gate with a slew of content while also serving as a safe haven for film releases during the first wave of Covid lockdowns, HBO Max is starting to feel the pinch of the Warner Brothers and Discovery merger. Virtually every piece of content on Warner Brothers and Discovery's shared roster has been caught in the crossfire of the company's consolidation efforts, and it seems like HBO Max is about to experience a few merger-related cuts.
Adding a dark irony to the phrase "too big to fail," multiple insiders say Warner Bros. Discovery plans to consolidate the companies' two biggest streamers, HBO Max and Discover+, a move that many fear will result in significant layoffs and content losses at HBO Max. The merger will also reportedly draw a harder line in the sand between Warner Bros. unscripted and scripted divisions. HBO content chief Casey Bloys is reportedly set to take on a more senior position once consolidation is complete.
According to TheWrap, multiple industry insiders expect Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to make an announcement ahead of the companies' upcoming quarterly earnings report, which marks the first time Warner Bros. has ranked as the world's No. 2 entertainment giant.
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Devin Nealy, Khareem Sudlow
