Move over Mark Twain, this time it’s HBO Max, whose death may have been greatly exaggerated — according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
Many had assumed that Netflix would most likely kill off the rival streaming service once its recently announced acquisition of WBD is approved by regulators, with fears that this could seriously increase the monthly subscription price of its platform thanks to the wave of new content that it just paid some serious cash for.
Now, according to a recording of a WBD all-hands meeting obtained by Business Insider, Zaslav has assured staff that “HBO Max will stay.” Adding that “For people who just want HBO Max, they’re going to be able to get it.”
This was one of the biggest fears of Netflix and HBO Max subscribers who only use one of the two services – if they merge, they will be forced to pay a premium for an expanded content catalog filled with things they never wanted. It looks like that won’t be the case based on Zaslav’s comments.
That said, I’ll take his word with a grain of salt, because in about 12 to 18 months (the estimated timeline for the acquisition to go through, assuming things go smoothly, although US President Trump’s recent comments suggest things could be at least a little bumpy), David Zaslav will no longer be the one making business decisions for HBO Max.
So, to a certain extent, he can promise what he wants – since he will not be the one to deliver.
However, this idea of keeping the services separated makes some sense. That could help quell fears about Netflix’s dominance of the video-on-demand market if HBO Max were to dissolve. Plus, combining the services would necessitate a larger price increase, which may be more than some customers can bear.
Instead, by keeping things separate, Netflix could simply offer a bundle that gives you both services for a cheaper price than paying for each, but otherwise keep the platforms somewhat separate.
Likewise, why wouldn’t Netflix want to make its platform even more essential to our entertainment needs than it is today? As with so much in this deal, we’ll have to wait and see what happens – Paramount also announced today a hostile takeover bid to swoop in before Netflix can acquire WBD, so forget trying to figure out what might happen in a year or so, we don’t know what might happen tomorrow.
Regardless of which twist comes, we’ll keep you updated though.
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