The traditional TV bundle can now be used for the streaming era

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Superpower: Streaming and Recommending High-Resolution Streams to the HomeFeeds

Existing subscribers will be transitioned into the new service with no action on their part. A Warner Bros. Discovery spokeswoman told CNN that users can keep features like 4K hsr resolution for a short time before being directed to migrate to the ultimate plan.

“Max is the one to watch,” CEO David Zaslav said. It is the place that every member of the household can go to see what they want at any given time.

Users who want the higher-resolution 4K streams will have to buy the Max “ultimate plan” for $19.99 a month, which includes up to four concurrent streams, 100 downloads and Dolby Atmos sound.

Warner Bros. Discovery is still in a traditional TV business that is declining, as shown by the Max service.

The interface of the Max app is going to get some improvements. The new interface of the Max app will be addressed with features like a new content navigation system, personalized recommendations, and a shortcut to save content, according to a Warner Bros. Discovery executive. It is hoped that Warner Bros. Discovery sorted out the bugginess that comes with the app.

The goal is to build a streaming service that brings enough of a variety of content to beat out rivals like Netflix and Disney Plus. During an interview with CNBC in 2021, Zaslav said that the streaming service will succeed because the combined company owns the “full ecosystem” of content that will appear on the merged app.

“Netflix is a great company, Disney is a great company, but we have a portfolio of content that is very diverse and broadly appealing,” Zaslav said at the time. It could be up to 400 million homes over time.

Warner Bros. Discovery hopes that it will amass 130 million subscribers by 2025. According to Jean-Briac Perrette, the company had invested in machine learning so the home feeds can recommend content using a human-plus-machine approach, at the launch event.

The new service will give consumers access to a large library of Warner Bros. programming, and will launch on May 23, according to CEO David Zaslav.

The service’s slogan is “it’s the one to watch” because it has so many of the world’s recognizable brands. It is our superpower. The streaming platform is an option for every member of the household, he said.

Company executives have touted the combined streaming service as unique in its content mix: 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.”

News and sports programming will be part of the service in the future according to Zaslav.

Other companies enmeshed in the cable business have also moved in recent years to launch streaming platforms, including Disney

            (DIS), NBC, and Paramount. None of these companies have succeeded in the business of streaming movies and TV shows, which has been done by Netflix.

As the market becomes more saturated, subscriber growth for streaming services has slowed. Some companies have introduced lower-priced ad-supported plans to draw people in.

Profitability is the most important indication of a company’s success, and executives have moved to highlight it more often. 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.”

Which company is ultimately proven to have the more effective strategy remains to be seen. But it goes without saying that Max — the product of the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery — represents the future for WBD, which has been entrenched in the declining traditional TV business. Zaslav said that Max positions the company for the next century.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s honchos clearly know this. Even as they touted Max as a place with something for the whole family, they also, in the words of global streaming president JB Perrette, wanted to “privilege” HBO’s offerings on the new streaming service. At the same time, execs promoted crossover content like Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge, a new HGTV home-renovation series that is, you guessed it, tied to the release of Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie. It feels like cognitive dissonance to have a take on a toy like Barbie next to the popular reality series, as it would have been right at home on the show.

Consumer choice is a bit of a touchy subject for Warner Bros. Discovery these days. It was a topic not mentioned or discussed during the presentation, but four members of Congress sent a letter back to Justice and the Attorney General. They wrote that the union had allowed the company to adopt anticompetitive practices that would hurt workers in affected labor markets.

In effect, WBD announced that it is recreating the bundle, erecting the pillars of a one-stop shop for scripted and unscripted television, movies, news and sports at a flat monthly rate. The only meaningful difference: instead of it being distributed through cable by a third-party, it will be transmitted direct-to-consumer over the internet.

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Disney vs. Hulu: The Core of WBD isn’t What Disney Has Learned During WorldBoard Battles

It is different from what Disney has done. Insider Intelligence analyst Paul Verna noted to me that the WBD competitor has “resisted the temptation” to combine Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Instead, Verna observed that Disney is “leaning into each brand’s core strength,” though Disney does offer the ability to purchase the individual services in a bundle.