Discovery and AT&T unveiled a plan for the communications giant to shed its entertainment companies. This means Warner Bros/Warner Media will be sold off to Discovery for $43 Billion. Though the deal still needs to be approved by regulatory committees and is not expected to finalize until 2022 everyone is betting on the leverage Discovery will have with its newly acquired assets.
Warner Media adds several high profile networks to the Discovery portfolio which already includes HGTV and Food Network. Top among the possible channel additions is HBO, TNT, and CNN. Discovery could create one giant streaming service under its recently launched Discovery+ or keep HBO Max as a seperate entity.
What’s also worth noting is Warner Bros. houses DC Comics and the full IP license for 99% of its characters, Superman being the exception. Unlike its counterpart, National Geographic, Discovery has little experience in publishing and the possibility of DC Comics going under that umbrella gives comics an uncertain future, to say the least. If Discovery becomes the IP holder for DC Comics they could lean the costs by licensing out characters as Marvel did at one time or continue to leverage in-house.
One of the other little mentioned pieces of the deal is Warner Bros Interactive which currently publishes games such as Mortal Kombat, Arkham Knight, Harry Potter, and houses some prestigious studios. While nothing official has been said, insider sources confirm that some of Warner Interactive will be part of the deal meaning Discovery maybe enterting the games publishing market in a major way.
We’ll learn more about all the pieces in the coming months, but early speculation could create a three way war for streaming supremacy between Disney, Netflix, and Discovery.
