It should come as no surprise that when the Discovery and WarnerMedia merger is completed, the two firms’ streaming apps will unite as well. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed the decision during the Deutsche Bank 30th Annual Media, Internet, and Telecom Conference (that’s a mouthful) on Monday, according to Variety.
This was our first meaningful look at the content strategy of this new organisation. Wiedenfels provided a hazy vision for the streaming app situation following the merger. There will be various packaging choices available before the two apps merge into one big app. (Take, for example, how Disney frequently bundles Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN.) The two will then be blended into one enormous and potentially ungainly beast of a product at some time.
HBO Max is clunky because, despite being a service you watch every day, it is extremely buggy. If you try to move directly to a show via Apple’s Up Next feature, you’ll frequently have to restart the app, at least on the Apple TV. Other times, simply selecting a show to watch in the app will cause the app to restart or crash. And good luck if you want to view something as soon as it airs. Many users tried to find out how upset Cassie was at her sister for her autobiographical stage musical during the Euphoria premiere a few weeks ago, but the app continuously crashed for them. (Spoiler alert: she was furious.)
After it broke during multiple premieres and season finales of Game of Thrones, Mare of Easttown, and others, you’d think HBO would have figured out how to handle the mad rush to watch a season finale after it broke during multiple premieres and season finales of Game of Thrones, Mare of Easttown, and others. No, HBO Max still crashes in 2022 if more than 12 people try to watch at the same time. Okay, it takes a lot more than 12 people trying to watch a stream at the same time to crash it, but you get the idea. HBO should have addressed this technological blunder years ago.
It’s unclear which division of the new company will be in charge of creating the new unified content app. It’s also unknown how much money the new app will set you back. Discovery Plus and HBO Max both provide ad-supported and ad-free levels, with Discovery Plus’ costing $4.99 and $6.99 per month and HBO Max’s costing $9.99 and $14.99 per month, respectively.
If the new company decides to mash prices together like it mashes apps and content, the service will cost between $14.99 and $21.99 per month. Netflix, for example, costs $9.99 to $19.99 a month depending on the number of screens and stream quality. Netflix also boasts the best-looking app in the streaming industry, with an algorithm that recommends material that users will enjoy. If the DiscoHBO app intends to charge more than $20, it’ll need more than the next season of Euphoria.
But,They are not convinced the new corporation realises this. The focus of Wiedenfels’ presentation was on content rather than app quality. “The combination could not make more sense than what they are doing here. They have HBO Max, with a more premium, male-skewing positioning, and then you’ve got the female-positioning on the Discovery side ,” he explained. He went on to say that seeing the combined stats excites him “in theory, the acquisition power of HBO Max, combined with the retention power of the Discovery content I think is going to make for a blowout DTC product.”
Yes, the merging of content will be intriguing, but not if consumers are unable to view it due to the app’s flaws.