Should Streaming Services Be ‘A Little For Many’ Or ‘A Lot For Fewer’ At This Point?

Last Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery’s JB Perrette revealed that HBO Max and Discovery+ would be merged into one streaming service in 2023.

While not surprising news, since any media company would likely prefer to operate one service instead of several, mashing these two specific streamers together will pose plenty of challenges. Namely: There’s minimal overlap between the audiences for the two services, the content isn’t complementary to each other, and there’s danger in diluting the HBO brand if you just fold Discovery+ into the service.

Doing so would overload HBO Max’s scripted, premium programming with a ton of low-cost reality TV. But folding HBO’s content into Discovery+ doesn’t make much sense either, even if the brand dangers aren’t there.

Whatever the combined entity winds up looking like, though, it’s clear that Warner Bros. Discovery is making a bet on being “a little for many” at this point. Is that the right approach to streaming? Diversity of programming is starting to emerge as the preferred option for audiences evaluating streaming, so long as quality isn’t taking a hit in the process.

Take a look at some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s competitors in the space. While Disney wants Disney+ to be the crown jewel of its eventual streaming empire, Hulu has been driving more subscription growth. That’s not a commentary on quality for Disney+, but one of variety for Hulu. Disney+ debuted as a service that would be provide “a lot for fewer” given its stable of IP across Walt Disney Studios, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel and National Geographic. While being the official home of passionate, niche fandoms is a good thing for initial sign-ups and growth, that well eventually runs dry. And those that aren’t subscribed to your service already think you’re only catering to those fans.

Paramount+ has its own niches (soccer, Star Trek), but still provides a variety of different types of content for various audiences. As a result, it’s adding subscribers at a time when many services are losing.

This is the part where you ask “what about Netflix?” The streaming giant aimed to combat its loss of known-entity library content rights with a glut of movies and shows that had the ability to check a box for any possible viewer. The volume play had its merits, but the service’s overall content quality (and hit rate) started falling — eventually coinciding with the subscriber losses that set up the stock sell-off just months ago.

Netflix’s new focus is on throttling back to firehose to some extent, while focusing on producing more quality content. That seems like the winning play in the short- and long-term for streaming services, as it follows a common school of thought for selling anything: Appeal to as many people as possible..

Niche products and services can clearly succeed and will continue to in a fragmented marketplace. But those products/services are targeted at maximizing a specific audience. If you win that group, you’re done. Which is fine if that’s your goal.

The largest streaming services, though, have not been established to win a corner of the overall marketplace and call it a day. They’re framed as the future of some of the world’s largest media companies, and as a result, need to appeal to the largest possible audience and need to keep growing. It’s why so much is made of subscriber numbers. And why Disney, while rife with bankable IP, is now questioning the core aspects of its streaming strategy to-date.

All of this informs why Warner Bros. Discovery is aiming to forge ahead with a combined entity, even if HBO Max and Discovery+ seem like strange bedfellows on paper. Providing a variety of beloved programming options for a lot of different audiences is less about just mashing things into one service, and more about fitting two halves together to make a complete streaming service that checks boxes for the whole population.

As Disney+ is discounted by some consumers for being the place to watch the growing collection (some would say glut) of Marvel and Star Wars content, a combined Warner Bros. Discovery service would be able to turn its weakness — DC Comics entities lacking the same success — into a bit of a strength. Audiences would see you get Superman and Batman, BUT you’re also getting Game of Thrones, Euphoria, Scooby-Doo, Love It or List It, Chopped and more.

After some resistance, it seems apparent that services are better off being the hub by which you’re going to watch TV, rather than the brand you’re watching on TV. Services are taking from Amazon, Roku, VIZIO, Samsung and other hardware players in this regard. Be the gateway for consumers who want to stream content. And provide the content (yours or others’) to make sure they stick with you when their show or movie is over.

Whether it’s a tile for HBO or a newly-named service altogether, Warner Bros. Discovery has positioned itself well with a combined entity. And they beat Disney to the idea, too, making the House of Mouse look like copycats despite the long history of Hulu absorption rumors.

Not a bad outcome given the flurry of concern around WBD’s streaming properties just a week ago.