HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys can’t really talk much about the future of his company, which will soon be known as Warner Bros. Discovery, but we made him spit out a few thoughts anyway about the pending merger’s streaming implications. All hypothetically speaking, of course.
“Any conversations around this are all highly regulated, and there’s only so much we can say, so much we can meet with them and talk about it,” Bloys told TheWrap.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get that, Casey. But still.
We asked Bloys if he sees enough synergy between HBO Max and Discovery+ to cast his vote for a super-combination of the two. The former is prestige-TV programming and Warner Bros. movies, while the second is chock full of unscripted programming about home improvement, cooking and hastily marrying strangers from other countries you met on the internet.
So what feels more logical to him? Having two individual streaming-revenue streams with very different programming, or one lump service with more of a something-for-everyone approach? (Here, this reporter assured Bloys I wasn’t going to specifically add “to compete with Netflix.”)
“Generally speaking… obviously, I think the combination can make a lot of sense. I’m a big HGTV watcher, a big Food Network watcher,” Bloys said. “There seems to be a lot of complementary programming to what we’re doing.”
Bloys continued to hedge on what would actually happen after the merger is completed as early as April. “Whether it’s in a bundle, or it’s one service — I have no idea. So, we’ll have to wait,” he said. “But I think there are a lot of ways it can be done that make sense.”
Fine, we’ll wait. In the meantime, read more from our Bloys interview here.
Ultimately, David Zaslav, the longtime boss of Discovery who will lead Warner Bros. Discovery, will have the final, final say. We’re sure he’ll ask Bloys’ opinion, however. You know, when he’s legally allowed to do so.
AT&T’s spinoff of WarnerMedia into a new company merged with Discovery, Inc. is slated to close in the second quarter of 2022. The deal already has U.S. regulatory approval, so all that is left is a vote by Discovery’s shareholders, which should be a slam dunk. The telecom giant is holding an investor day on March 11 to go into more specifics of the merger, and to discuss the telecom giant’s leftover assets.
HBO Max currently has two pricing structures: $9.99 with ads or $14.99 without. Discovery+ has a $4.99 ad-supported option and a $6.99 ad-free version.