Discovery, Inc. hit 22 million paid streaming subscribers worldwide by the end of 2021, with the vast majority being Discovery Plus customers, the company revealed Thursday.
The company reported last November that it grew to 20 million paid direct-to-consumer subscribers by the end of Q3. For comparison, Discovery previously said it had 18 million streaming subscribers as of Aug. 3, ended its second quarter of 2021 with 17 million subs, and the first quarter with 13 million.
Discovery Plus launched last January. The streaming service costs $4.99 per month with ads or $6.99 without ads and accounts for the bulk of Discovery’s streaming sub total, the rest being some international direct-to-consumer products. But Discovery Plus is about to be far from Discovery, Inc.’s most popular streamer, as the company is set to own WarnerMedia and its HBO Max service by the end of Q2.
As Variety reported Wednesday, insiders say Discovery is preparing to close its $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T to create new company Warner Bros. Discovery as early as mid-April.
According to two people familiar with the matter, with Discovery’s shareholder vote on the deal — which has already received regulatory approval from the DOJ — set for March 11, the two companies are prepping for a close somewhere between April 11-28. Though those dates are seen as the goal at present, there’s always a chance of missing due to potential holdups and the latter end of that range is the most likely outcome, per an additional source.
Zaslav will become president and CEO of WBD upon deal close, with WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar expected to exit. One of Zaslav’s first major post-merger hires will likely be a leader for CNN, following the ousting of Jeff Zucker after a company investigation found he hadn’t disclosed a consensual relationship with now-exited CNN marketing chief Allison Gollust.
“2021 was by all measures an exceptional year for our company, in which we achieved significant operational, financial, and strategic objectives,” David Zaslav, Discovery president and chief executive officer, said in a statement prepared to accompany the fourth-quarter financial results Thursday. “We grew our global DTC paying subscribers to 22 million, a tailwind for our strong distribution revenue growth of 11%, while global advertising revenues grew 10% due to continued strength in our key markets and share gains. Additionally, we ended the year with nearly $4 billion of cash on hand and generated robust cash flows, supporting our ability to invest in growth initiatives. Further, the successful recent broadcast of our second Winter Olympic Games across Europe, on the heels of our first broadcast of the Summer Olympic Games, underscores one of our key differentiators: in-language and locally relevant content. All of which position us well to take advantage of the remarkable opportunities ahead for Warner Bros. Discovery, which we believe will be among the world’s most dynamic media companies.”
Zaslav’s statement continued: “We, of course, are pleased to receive unconditional clearance from the European Commission, the expiration of the HSR waiting period, and clearance from other key international markets, and AT&T having received a favorable private letter ruling from the IRS. We also filed our merger proxy earlier this month and have scheduled our stockholder meeting for March 11th. Following the vote, and assuming the deal is approved by our stockholders, we expect to be on track to close in Q2.”