Brief - The Hustle

Streaming mergers are coming

Written by Rob Litterst | Oct 10, 2022 9:57:57 AM

With 200+ streaming services all charging an individual subscription price, consolidation was always inevitable.

And a string of recent announcements suggests it’s starting to happen:

  • In August, Warner Bros. Discovery announced a plan to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into one service by summer 2023.
  • Last month, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said he hopes to merge Disney+ with Hulu in 2024, when Disney can buy out Comcast’s interest in the service.
  • Last week, the exit of Paramount Global exec David Nevins led analysts to speculate that Showtime could be absorbed into Paramount+ in short order.

Along with offering better price points for more content, Chapek says a merger can also reduce “consumer friction” caused by having to toggle between two different services.

Now if only there was an easy way to know which titles were on each platform.