WarnerMedia is joining the streaming wars, with chief executive John Stankey announcing Wednesday at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit that the company plans on launching its own direct-to-consumer streaming service by the end of 2019.
Stankey said the standalone service will offer a bundle spearheaded by HBO — although fans will still be able to pay for HBO on its own if they want. A price for the service, expected to debut by the end of next year, wasn’t shared.
“This is another benefit of the AT&T/Time Warner merger, and we are committed to launching a compelling and competitive product that will serve as a complement to our existing businesses and help us to expand our reach by offering a new choice for entertainment with the WarnerMedia collection of films, television series, libraries, documentaries and animation loved by consumers around the world,” WarnerMedia said in an accompanying SEC filing.