Warner Bros. Discovery Is the New Name for Discovery WarnerMedia Merger

With plans to spend $20 billion a year, more than Disney and Netflix.

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 2 June 2021 11:49 IST

Photo Credit: Discovery/WarnerMedia

Warner Bros. Discovery logo

Highlights

Proposed merger set to be completed by mid-2022
Discovery CEO David Zaslav to lead WB Discovery
No word on merger of HBO Max and Discovery+

Warner Bros. Discovery is the name for the proposed merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia, Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav — set to be the future CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery — announced Tuesday at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California. That would put the famed studio, known for everything from DC, HBO, Friends, Harry Potter, The Matrix, and The Lord of the Rings, squarely in the spotlight. Founded as Warner Communications, WarnerMedia has also gone by the names of Time Warner and briefly, AOL Time Warner. Discovery was known as Discovery Communications until 2018. The new name and logo comes with the slogan “the stuff that dreams are made of”, part of a dialogue from The Maltese Falcon.

In a prepared statement, Zaslav said: “Warner Bros. Discovery will aspire to be the most innovative, exciting and fun place to tell stories in the world — that is what the company will be about. We love the new company's name because it represents the combination of Warner Bros.' fabled hundred-year legacy of creative, authentic storytelling and taking bold risks to bring the most amazing stories to life, with Discovery's global brand that has always stood brightly for integrity, innovation and inspiration. There are so many wonderful, creative and journalistic cultures that will make up the Warner Bros. Discovery family. We believe it will be the best and most exciting place in the world to tell big, important and impactful stories across any genre — and across any platform: film, television and streaming.”

Discovery and WarnerMedia's proposed merger was announced back in May, with current WarnerMedia owner AT&T getting out of the entertainment business just three years after it suffered greatly to enter it. AT&T is said to be focused more on ramping up 5G and telecommunications in the US, and the WarnerMedia sale will allow it to have more cashflow. For Warner Bros. Discovery, this makes it one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, with a library of nearly 200,000 hours of programming from brands such as HBO, Warner Bros., Discovery, DC, CNN, WB Games, Turner Sports, Cartoon Network, HGTV, Food Network, TNT, TBS, Turner Classic Movies, Wizarding World, Adult Swim, Eurosport, Magnolia, TLC, Animal Planet, and ID among others.

Together, Warner Bros. Discovery will spend $20 billion (about Rs. 1,46,425 crores) on content annually, more than what Netflix and Disney are spending, Zaslav has previously noted. But it's still unclear how this merger might affect their streaming operations — WarnerMedia has HBO Max, while Discovery has Discovery+. While the latter is available in India, WarnerMedia has yet to publicly talk about any India-specific launch plans for HBO Max. Maybe that will change once Warner Bros. Discovery takes shape in mid-2022. After all, Zaslav has plans for Warner Bros. Discovery to reach 400 million streaming subscribers globally.

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Further reading: Warner Bros, Discovery, Warner Bros Discovery, WarnerMedia, AT and T, HBO Max, Discovery Plus, David Zaslav, HBO, DC Comics, CNN, WB Games, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS, Harry Potter, Adult Swim, TLC, Animal Planet