No, Discovery Plus is not going away any time soon. While there has been a lot of talk around HBO Max lately, including reports that the new Max service would swallow up Discovery Plus, that’s not the case.
Following the merger and creation of Warner Bros. Discovery, there had been some concern over what would happen to the two services, HBO Max and Discovery Plus. At one point, the newly merged company made clear that the two services would eventually combine into a single streaming service.
Since then, we have learned that this new service is going to be called Max, and that it will be available from next month. According to Warner Bros. Discovery, while HBO Max and Discovery Plus each “offered something for some people, Max will have a broad array of quality choices for everybody.”
Even though the launch of Max will result in the end of HBO Max, it won’t affect Discovery Plus in any meaningful way. Yes, the new Max service is going to include more Discovery-related content than ever before, but Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed that Discovery Plus will continue to be available.
Max launches on May 23rd, and both Discovery Plus and Max will be available as separate services to new and existing subscribers after this date.
As to why Warner Bros. Discovery seems to have changed its mind about folding both services into Max, there’s a very good reason – Discovery Plus subscribers.
It is highly likely that there are plenty of homes that only want access to content from the Discovery family of brands. Keeping the Discovery Plus service alive helps to ensure that Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t lose any of those subscribers.
While some existing subscribers might be willing to switch over to Max to retain access to the same content, the cheapest Max subscription is $9.99 per month and comes with ads. In comparison, the most expensive Discovery Plus subscription is $6.99 per month, and offers a completely ad-free viewing experience.
The higher monthly price, either with or without ads, could potentially prove to be too much of a hurdle for some homes to get over in order to make the switch from Discovery Plus to Max.
Basically, keeping Discovery Plus going alongside Max is not only good for subscribers, but it’s also good for Warner Bros. Discovery, and that’s enough of a reason to ensure that Discovery Plus won’t be going away any time soon.
Leave a Reply