HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+ report a combined total of 92.1M subscribers, plans for major restructuring
Warner Bros. Discovery revealed its second-quarter results — its first quarterly earnings since the $43 billion merger.
The total number of direct-to-consumer subscribers across HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+ was 92.1 million in the second quarter of 2022, up 1.7 million from the end of Q1 with 90.4 million subscribers. The company did not break down the over-the-top streaming services’ numbers individually, so it’s unclear what the exact number is in terms of HBO Max and Discovery+ subscriptions.
The company also reported a loss of 300,000 domestic subscribers, a decrease from 53.3 million to 53 million.
In the prior quarter, WarnerMedia had reported a combined 76.8 million HBO and HBO Max subscribers and Discovery+ had 24 million. The total topped 100 million subscribers. The discrepancy with today’s numbers is due to how the previous owner, AT&T, had counted wireless customers on plans that bundled HBO Max.
When announcing Q2 results, Warner Bros. Discovery wrote in its letter, “The new definition resulted in the exclusion of 10 million legacy Discovery non-core subscribers and unactivated AT&T mobility subscribers from the Q1 subscriber count.”
During its earnings call, the company disclosed that the upcoming combined streaming service will launch in the U.S. in the summer of 2023, with Latin America to follow that same year. It will rollout in European markets and Asia Pacific territories in 2024. Warner Bros. Discovery also said it was exploring a free ad-supported tier.
“Once our SVOD service is firmly established in the market, we see real potential and are exploring the opportunity for a fast or free ad-supported streaming offering that will give consumers who do not want to pay a subscription fee access to great library
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