The largest Hollywood studio and channels of Discovery are about to be in a single ownership through an upcoming seal on.
Following its acquisition of several brands through the 2018’s Time Warner purchase of $108.7bn, AT&T has the ownership of CNN, HBO and Warner Bros.
The agreement will open the door of the already jammed market to another player.
“This is a streaming arms race and AT&T is making an offensive strategic move to further bulk up its content in the battle versus Netflix, Disney, and Amazon,” said Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives to BBC.
“The Time Warner acquisition and the golden jewel HBO asset was the first step with Discovery – a doubling down on this streaming endeavour,”Ives said.
But Aviva’s chief investment officer, David Cummings, argues that dealing with the shareholders is not a walk in the park.
While he said that AT&T indeed needs to boost its content given the large competition in streaming, Cummings said that “the market might feel this deal is a bit too late; I expect the market might be a little sceptical.”
According to a report from Financial Times, the merger can result in a fresh business that will set apart AT&T, and with debt included, can reach $150bn in value.
Currently, the market value of Discovery is at around $30bn, with debt included.
The planned agreement can join Warner Bros Entertainment and Discovery, which, respectively, hold franchises of Harry Potter and Batman; and spontaneous nature, home, and cooking shows.
HBO and HBO Max, which are under the ownership of WarnerMedia, have international subscribers that stand at around 64 million.
It is quite far from the bigger streaming companies like Netflix with 208 subscribers and Disney+ with more than a hundred million.
Discovery covers more than 88 million homes in the US, having the Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel among its selections. On the other hand, Discovery+ holds 15 million subscribers after it was launched in January.
