HBO Max, Discovery Plus' new parent to be named Warner Bros. Discovery
Two weeks ago, AT&T unveiled a deal to spin off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery -- but nobody had a name for the new company yet.
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AT&T is merging its WarnerMedia assets with Discovery's.
AT&T's WarnerMedia division -- home to streaming service HBO Max, the Warner Bros. movie studio and other big TV assets -- will be renamed Warner Bros. Discovery when it's spun out of the telecom company and merges with Discovery, known for reality shows and other unscripted programming on its cable networks and its own streaming service Discovery Plus.
The new company also plans for its "wordmark" logo to include the phrase "the stuff that dreams are made of," a line drawn from the Warner Bros. classic film The Maltese Falcon.
AT&T and Discovery announced their $43 billion deal more than two weeks ago, but they unveiled their plan without a name for the new company. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who is set to also lead the new company, announced the name Tuesday.
"Warner Bros. Discovery will aspire to be the most innovative, exciting and fun place to tell stories in the world -- that is what the company will be about," he said in a release.
The deal's closing, which is still subject to regulatory approval and other conditions, isn't expected until the middle of next year.
The plan to combine WarnerMedia with Discovery is one in a parade of recent media dealmaking, all coming as streaming video has never been more popular and the competition never more fierce. In the last year, media giants and tech heavyweights have launched their own rivals to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, with services like Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, HBO Max and Peacock rolling out. These so-called streaming wars affect how many services you must use -- and often pay for -- to watch your favorite shows and movies online.
That intensifying competition in streaming has triggered a wave of consolidation among media companies. Disney bought Fox, Viacom and CBS merged, and AT&T bought Time Warner, then struck this deal to spin it all off again. Just last week, Amazon agreed to buy MGM, one of the few smaller media properties left, as the competitive advantage in Hollywood solidifies around being a giant -- or part of a giant -- to survive.
