AT&T announced Monday it would merge its WarnerMedia and Discovery content platforms to create a new media giant that could rival Disney and Netflix, among other content companies.
- “The new company will put storytelling, journalism and creative talent at the center of everything that we do,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav said, according to Axios. “This will be my No. 1 priority.”
Specifically, WarnerMedia will be spun off from AT&T and merged with Discovery, according to CNN.
- The deal would then combine the content of the two brands.
- This would include a merger of HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services.
- In total, the WarnerMedia brands like HBO, Warner Bros. studios and CNN will be combined with Oprah Winfrey’s OWN, HGTV, The Food Network and Animal Planet under one huge platform, according to The New York Times.
- So basically, this means you’ll have plenty of new shows and movies to stream in the future between the two brands. What that looks like and where that happens is unclear.
Per CNN, the merger of the two brands puts AT&T right in the mix of the content wars between Netflix and Disney.
However, the deal is also a little more complex than that. AT&T's decision will help AT&T deal with its own debt as it will create more opportunities for growth, according to CNN.
Bloomberg News first reported on the news Sunday.