Move over Mark Twain, this time its HBO Max whose death may have been greatly exaggerated – according to Warner Bros. Discovery chief 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 a fear this could seriously increase the monthly subscription price of its platform thanks to the wave of new content it just paid a seriously large amount of 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 that only want HBO Max, they’ll be able to get it.”
This was one of the biggest fears for Netflix and HBO Max subscribers who only use one of the two services – if they merge they’ll be forced to pay a premium for an expanded content catalogue full of stuff they never wanted. It seems that won’t be the case based on Zaslav’s comments.
That said, I’d take his words with a pinch of salt because in roughly 12 to 18 months (the estimated timeline for the acquisition to go through assuming things run smoothly, though US President Trump’s recent comments suggest things might be at least a little a bumpy) David Zaslav won’t be the one making business decisions for HBO Max anymore.
So to a certain extent, he can promise whatever he wants – as it won’t be him who has to deliver.
This idea of keeping the services split makes some sense however. It could help assuage fears surrounding Netflix’s domination of the video-on-demand market if HBO Max is dissolved. Plus combining the services would necessitate a major price hike, which may be more than some customers can stomach.
By instead keeping things separate Netflix could simply offer a bundle that gives you both services for a cheaper rate than paying for each separately, but otherwise keep the platforms somewhat distinct.
Equally, why wouldn’t Netflix want to make its platform even more essential for our entertainment needs than it is today? As with so much in this deal we’ll have to wait and see what happens – Paramount has also today announced a hostile takeover bid to swoop in before Netflix can scoop up WBD, so forget trying to work out what could happen in a year or so, we don’t know what might happen tomorrow.
Whatever twist or turn comes, however, we’ll keep you updated.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
