HBO Max and Discovery Plus will merge into one app

It actually shouldn’t shock anybody that when the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia closes, the 2 corporations’ streaming apps will expertise a merger of their very own. As famous by Selection, Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed the transfer when talking on the Deutsche Financial institution thirtieth Annual Media, Web, & Telecom Convention (that’s a mouthful) on Monday.

This was our first actual glimpse of what this new firm’s content material plan appears to be like like. Wiedenfels gave a really free roadmap for the streaming app state of affairs post-merger. Earlier than the 2 apps merge into one mega app, there shall be some bundling choices. (Assume how Disney usually bundles Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN.) Then, sooner or later, the 2 shall be mixed into one huge and doubtlessly unwieldy beast of a product.

I say unwieldy as a result of regardless of being a service I watch each dang day, HBO Max is buggy as hell. Ceaselessly, not less than on the Apple TV, you must restart the app for those who attempt to navigate on to a present from Apple’s Up Subsequent function. Different instances, simply selecting a present to look at within the app straight will result in a restart or crash. And if you wish to watch one thing as quickly because it airs, good luck. In the course of the Euphoria premiere a couple of weeks in the past, the app repeatedly crashed for a lot of customers looking for out how mad Cassie was at her sister for her autobiographical stage musical. (Spoilers, she was tremendous mad.)

HBO had one of many first streaming apps to simulcast streams with over the air content material, and you’d assume it might have found out methods to deal with the mad rush to look at a season finale after it broke throughout a number of premieres and the finales of Sport of Thrones, Mare of Easttown, and others. However no, in 2022, HBO Max nonetheless crashes if greater than 12 individuals resolve to tune in on the identical time. Okay, it in all probability takes significantly greater than 12 individuals attempting to look at a stream without delay to crash it — however you get the purpose. It is a technological cockup that HBO ought to have resolved years in the past.

It’s unclear which a part of the brand new firm will take possession of designing this new mixed content material app. It’s additionally unclear how a lot the brand new app will value. Discovery Plus and HBO Max each at the moment keep ad-supported and ad-free tiers, with Discovery Plus’ going for $4.99 a month and $6.99 a month, and HBO Max’s going for $9.99 a month and $14.99 a month. If the brand new firm opts to mash costs collectively because it mashes apps and content material, then that may imply a service going for about $14.99 and $21.99 a month. Netflix, for reference, ranges in worth from $9.99 to $19.99 a month relying on the variety of screens and high quality of streams. Netflix additionally has the best-looking app within the streaming enterprise with an algorithm that implies content material one would truly need to watch. The DiscoHBO app will want greater than the following season of Euphoria if it desires to cost greater than $20.

However I’m undecided the brand new firm truly understands this. Wiedenfels’ presentation was oriented largely round content material — not the standard of the app. “The mix couldn’t make extra sense than what we’re doing right here. We now have HBO Max, with a extra premium, male-skewing positioning, and then you definately’ve bought the female-positioning on the Discovery aspect,” he stated. He went on to precise enthusiastic pleasure at seeing the mixed metrics as a result of “in idea, the acquisition energy of HBO Max, mixed with the retention energy of the Discovery content material I believe goes to make for a blowout DTC product.”

Sure, the merging of content material shall be tremendous interesting, however not if individuals can’t watch it as a result of the app is buggy.