Warner Media And Discovery Finalise Merger
The £31bn merger between US media giants Discovery and WarnerMedia has officially closed.
Discovery and AT&T-owned WarnerMedia reached a definitive agreement to combine their respective media businesses back in 2021 and now the new company, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) started trading on 11th April.
A new offering will include the Discovery+ and HBO Max streaming platforms with the intent of rivalling other global players such as Netflix and Disney+.
Early projections suggest WBD will hit revenue of £40bn in 2023. The company will own nearly 200,000 hours of programming, offering content to subscribers across WarnerMedia and Discovery’s portfolio.
The company already holds a significant amount of sport broadcasting rights, and this is likely to increase in the coming years. Warner Bros. Discovery, will be home to Eurosport, Turner Sports in the US and a French TV network that holds European rights to broadcast the Olympics and is available in 54 countries. In February, Discovery entered talks that would combine Eurosport’s UK business with BT Sport.
David Zaslav (pictured above) will become the Chief of Executive Officer of the new business, which unveiled its full leadership team last week.
Zaslav commented, “Today’s announcement marks an exciting milestone not just for Warner Bros Discovery but for our shareholders, our distributors, our advertisers, our creative partners and, most importantly, consumers globally.
“With our collective assets and diversified business model, Warner Bros Discovery offers the most differentiated and complete portfolio of content across film, television and streaming. We are confident that we can bring more choice to consumers around the globe while fostering creativity and creating value for shareholders.”
Image: Shutterstock
