A few weeks ago, a surprising amount of original content – including popular Hungarian series “The Informant” – was removed from HBO Max, as part of a merger with Discovery+. Little did we know that this was only the beginning of an even larger change, that includes the complete shutdown of the HBO Max streaming platform.
HBO Max and Discovery+ is apparently being merged into a new service by the summer of 2023, according to The Verge. The news was announced by Warner Bros – Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
“We’re creating an extraordinary product,” said the CEO, stating that Discovery+, which will showcase non-fiction content, has a stronger technological background than HBO Max, which will offer mostly fiction, but the two platforms will complement each other well. The streaming service that will be created by the merger of HBO Max and Discovery+ does not have an official name yet.
The above statement is nuanced by other Warner Discovery decisions lately: shutting down an almost finished Batgirl movie with a 70-million-dollar budget, which has already been made, and removing six of its own feature films (including Seth Rogen‘s “An American Pickle” and “The Witches” starring Anne Hathaway) from HBO Max‘s line-up. The company also gave up on its plan to release their movies online 45 days after theatrical release.
