Warner Bros Discovery will separate its streaming platform from the rest of the group – Liberation
Yet another split which a little more confirms the rise of streaming. Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), resulting from the merger between Warnermedia and Discovery in 2022, announced on Monday in a statement that she would split into two companies, separating her studios and her streaming activities from her cable television networks, while the parent company of the parent company Hbo And CNN seeks to better compete in the era of streaming. This split should be finalized around mid-2026 subject to the green light of regulators.
In detail, the Max streaming service, which will be renamed HBO Max This summer, will be housed in a new company, called streaming & studios, as well as television and cinema production studios, as well as themed parks. This slope will be controlled by the managing director of WBD, David Zaslav. The other listed company, named Global Networks, will include the channels of the New York group, in particular CNN, the TNT station, very oriented towards sport, or Discovery (nature and adventure), and will be led by the financial director of Warner, Gunnar Wiedenfels.
These channels still draw most of their income from cable subscriptions today, an industry in contraction has continued for several years. According to the specialized firm Ibis World, the number of paid subscribers to cable in the United States increased from 105 million in 2010 to 66 million in 2024 (-37 %). At the same time, CNN’s hearings fell 15 % and the chain was no longer watched in the United States only by less than half a million people per day on average (481,000) last year.
This break is also the latest sign Decades of decades of media consolidation that have created world conglomerates covering content creation, distribution and, in some cases, telecommunications. As a note The New York Times, « The American media giants seek to get rid of their wired declining networks while preserving their continuous dissemination networks, which experience faster growth ». Comcast, the parent company of NBC and Universal Studios, announced last year wanting to concentrate its television activity in a new company.
According to David Zaslav, « By operating as two distinct and optimized companies in the future, we give these emblematic brands the concentration and the strategic flexibility they need to be more competitive in the constantly evolving media landscape ». This strategic reset would mainly offer the Warner Bros Discovery streaming unit more room for maneuver to evolve by producing studio content without being hampered by the decline in activities of cable networks.
