• Warner Bros. Discovery has announced an additional 1.6 million subscribers added to its streaming platforms in the first quarter of 2023 to March.
• The company now has a total of 97.6 million subscribers ahead of the launch of its Max service.
• Max will be a combination of both HBO Max and Discovery Plus, which will launch on 23rd May 2023.

The streaming wars continue to heat up, with the latest financial results from Warner Bros. Discovery indicating that the media giant has now amassed 97.6 million subscribers as of March 2023.

In comparison, global leader Netflix has over 232 million, and Disney+ has over 150 million subscribers. Unlike Disney+, however the streaming platforms of Warner Bros. Discovery, namely HBO Max and Discovery Plus (which will soon be merged into a single service come 23rd May), are set to become profitable in 2023, one year ahead of expectations.

Meanwhile, Disney+ is only expected to become profitable in 2024. The reason for the boost in subscribers, according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, is recent restructuring efforts.

In the first quarter of 2023, the company added a new 1.6 million streaming customers, according to Telecompaper. Subscriber numbers in the US rose to 55.3 million compared to 54.6 million in Q4 2022.

International subscribers also increased, with 42.3 million people now paying for the service outside America, compared to 41.5 million several months prior.

In terms of revenues, the shuttering of the CNN+ streaming service, a few months after it launched, helped reduce the company’s operating expenses significantly, alongside other sharp cuts on general expenses.

The earnings before taxes of Warner Bros. Discovery improved to $50 million from a previous loss of $654 million.

One restructuring effort being undergone by the company, as mentioned above, is the consolidation of its streaming platforms into one singular service, which will also see brand-new shows from beloved properties like Harry Potter and the DC Universe.

Max is set to be aimed at everyone, while the two platforms it is made from where for more niche audiences, explained JB Perrette, president & CEO of Global Streaming & Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, during an event in April.

“This new brand signals an important change from two narrower products, HBO Max and Discovery+, to our broader content offering and consumer proposition. While each product offered something for some people, Max will have a broad array of quality choices for everybody,” Perrette said.

There is no word yet if the unified Max platform will launch in South Africa, especially as Warner Bros. Discovery has an agreement with MultiChoice to stream its content on Showmax.