(CNN) — Warner Bros. Discovery has unveiled the long-awaited “Max,” its high-stakes super-streamer that combines content from the company’s top brands into a single service.
The company’s move, announced by CEO David Zaslav at a press event Wednesday, is a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery to compete aggressively in the streaming marketplace as the traditional linear TV business declines rapidly.It’s the one to watch because we have so many of the world’s iconic and globally recognized franchises. It’s our superpower,” Zaslav said, selling the streaming platform as a service “every member of the household” can go to for entertainment.The new Max streaming service will give consumers access to a large library of programming across Warner Bros. Discovery’s sprawling portfolio: Warner Bros., HBO, HGTV, Food Network, Cartoon Network, TLC and others.The platform was borne of the mega-merger announced between WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2021 and completed last year. Warner Bros. Discovery is also the parent company of CNN.Executives at Warner Bros. Discovery have touted the combined streaming service as unique in that it packages award-winning prestige programming like HBO’s “Succession” and “House of the Dragon” with unscripted shows like HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” and TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé.
The Max service represents the future for Warner Bros. Discovery, which has been entrenched in a traditional TV business that is declining as audiences switch to streaming.
Other companies enmeshed in the cable business have also moved in recent years to launch streaming platforms, including Disney (DIS), NBC, and Paramount. But none of these companies have achieved the success of Netflix (NFLX), which pioneered the streaming business and has more than 230 million global subscribers.
Warner Bros. Discovery hopes that it will amass 130 million subscribers by 2025.But subscriber growth for streaming services has slowed in recent years as the market becomes more saturated. Some companies have introduced lower-priced ad-supported plans to draw people in.
Increasingly, executives have moved to tout profitability over subscriber growth as the most important barometer for a company’s success. Netflix even announced last year that it would stop providing guidance for its membership, stating that the company is “increasingly focused on revenue as our primary top-line metric.”
