Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.hollywoodreporter.com
On Tuesday, Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison informed reporters of his intention to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming app. That’s the “longterm” plan, at least. “It’ll take a period of time” for that to happen, he explained, so look for a bundling option in the more-immediate future.
The day-one event celebrating the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery featured a wide-ranging conversation between the media in attendance and Ellison and Skydance co-CEO Ynon Kriez. But do you know what word never came up — not even one time? “Discovery.” It was not uttered in the context of the WBD acronym, the brand’s many cable channels, or their companion streaming service.
Symbolically, that makes sense. The crown jewel assets are Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., HBO, CBS and CNN. But Hollywood just went through an era in which David Zaslav, the ruler of the Discovery empire, made his company seem like a merger of equals when it combined with Warner Bros. back in 2022. And for several years, Discovery was in the conversation just as much as the Warner Bros. part, thanks to the boss.
Now it seems like Discovery+ is being overlooked, including by the mogul who now owns Discovery+. The streamer is the home to the linear programming on Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Animal Planet, Magnolia Network and some CNN specials. It costs $5.99 per month with ads or $9.99 without.
How far of an afterthought is the niche AVOD/SVOD service? Hours before the Skydance press conference, when the subscription-economy measurement company Antenna provided members of the media with a relevant press briefing, they too omitted Discovery+. To be clear, they had the figures — they just didn’t think anyone cared. Well, The Hollywood Reporter cares.
As of August 2026, Antenna estimates there are 4.9 million paying Discovery+ subscribers in the U.S., and about half of those are ad-supported members. (The last time the streamer’s global subscribers were reported was March 2022, prior to the creation of WBD, when Discovery+ had 24 million subs.) It is understandable for Discovery+ to take such a backseat at Skydance to the bigger boys: Paramount+ has about 34.5 million paying U.S. subs (12.8 million ad-supported) and HBO Max has roughly 28.3 million (12.9 million ad-supported), per the same data set, the one Antenna’s rep actually emailed out.
But Discovery+ should not be considered completely worthless, because, for starters, it’s not. Discovery+ is profitable, possibly to the tune of low nine figures, several sources told THR. (WBD did not separate streamers in its quarterly and annual earnings reports.) Beyond cloud storage through Amazon Web Services, there are practically zero expenses associated with the streamer, one person said. In part, that is because Discovery+ no longer contains original programming. (Discovery+ has the Discovery cable channel bundle’s shows next-day; it’s a pure cord-cutter service.) The cable shows are cable’s burden.
Discovery+ also has a relatively low churn (cancellation) rate, so it provides a reliable revenue stream. It’s not cable, but it’s what we have. There was a period where HBO Max/Max was to have almost all of the same programming as Discovery+, but that content has been heavily reduced from WBD’s primary digital offering.
There was one vague statement in the mega-deal’s closing announcement that may indicate something about Discovery+’s future.
“Consumers can expect greater innovation from a company built with technology at its core, including significant improvements to its direct-to-consumer streaming products, which will unify into a single service over time,” Skydance’s acquisition-complete press release reads. There again, Discovery+ was not mentioned but the other streamers were.
A spokesperson for Skydance did not immediately respond to THR‘s request for comment on the plans for Discovery+.
So no one is talking about Discovery+ this week, but on a February 2026 earnings call, WBD chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels really wanted to talk about it.
“I do want to talk about D+ for a second,” he said. “We haven’t talked about it a lot because HBO Max has been the core priority.”
Wiedenfels, it should be noted, did not come over to Skydance.
“But if you remember back when we merged into Warner Bros. Discovery, we were trying to shut down Discovery+,” Wiedenfels continued. “And fact of the matter is we still have millions of viewers who are very regularly engaged, who love the content. And there is a tremendous opportunity. We have already opened up the buy flow again in certain international territories. And as you saw in our proxy, it is a profitable business, and I think has a lot more ahead for us.”
Warner Bros. Discovery had the exclusive pan-European pay-TV and streaming rights for the Olympics through 2032, which means Skydance now has those rights. It can put the Games on the streamer of its choice, but that was one way Discovery+ had made itself essential.
In other words, there is no business reason for Discovery+ to be shuttered under new management, so it probably will go on. If no one is talking about it, that’s probably because it is a low priority under the combined companies’ “Mountain of Entertainment” — with $80 billion in debt, you work big to small. One Wall Street analyst told THR that Ellison & co. shouldn’t be spending any real time on assets that put a serious dent into that number.
On Monday, also known as WBD’s RIP day, Ellison publicly unveiled his senior leadership team for the new (and improved?) Skydance. He wisely selected HBO chief Casey Bloys to run Skydance’s streaming business, adding oversight of Paramount+ and Pluto TV to Bloys’ HBO Max purview. There again, “Discovery+” was not so much as muttered, but Pluto(!) snuck in.
