HBO Max & Discovery+ to merge

And Netflix loses its biggest show

What to know

• Warner Bros. Discovery combining HBO Max & Discovery+ in 2023… After days of uncomfortable rumors and disappearing titles, WBD finally had its big earnings call. We now know that HBO Max and Discovery+ are combining into one streaming service (to debut summer 2023). The company didn’t immediately gut HBO Max, as The Wrap had reported it might. In fact, David Zaslav said WBD will spend “dramatically more” on HBO/HBO Max and touted Max and Discovery+ as two unique and important entities. Whether there will be layoffs or restructuring as the two streaming services (and 3 development teams) merge is yet to be seen. And what of DC? The company is hitting reset and forming a 10-year Marvel-esque plan. All in all there was lots of corporate spin today, we shall see what happens when everything shakes out. 👀

• Hollywood creatives stew over HBO Max removing content… More titles disappeared from HBO Max today including HBO series Vinyl, Mrs. Fletcher, Camping, and Run. So yeah, artists are mad! “Soooo many people are about to get their years of hard development work thrown out and we’ll never even know,” said producer Carina Adly MacKenzie. Dickinson creator Alena Smith explained that the HBO Max situation is exactly why she asked for a physical copy of her show — and even then Apple only gave her one! It’s easy to think that as streaming subscribers, we own what we pay for, this week has proven, we definitely do not. Which is why physical media still matters. 🤬