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Warner Bros. Discovery is changing its name (again) – here’s what that means for HBO Max and Discovery+
- Warner Bros. Discovery will soon be Warner Bros. and Discovery Global
- HBO Max and Discovery+ will be split under the new corporate entities
- TNT Sports, Bleacher Reports and CNN will move to Discovery Global
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will soon be Warner Bros. once more. Following the announcement in early June that the media company would separate into two, WBD has revealed the new corporate names of its new businesses.
Like it did with HBO Max at the start of the month, which changed back to HBO Max after a two-year stint as Max (who could forget the Spider-Men meme that HBO Max’s chief marketing officer Shauna Spenley shared during the rebrand’s announcement), WBD is reverting back to the name it’s most commonly known as.
V2 approved by legal. pic.twitter.com/uUhH3RU4T6May 14, 2025
The change will take effect in mid-2026 and will see Warner Bros. become the home of Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO, HBO Max and Warner Bros. Gaming Studios, as well as the studio’s legendary movie and TV content.
Meanwhile, the newly formed Discovery Global will include the TV networks CNN, TNT Sports in the US, Discovery, and some free-to-air channels across Europe such as Quest and Food Network as well as streaming services such as the Discovery+ and the Bleacher Report (B/R).
Effectively, the split means that Warner Bros. will house all of WBD’s main streaming services and studios, while Discovery Global will become the place for premier entertainment, sports and news networks.
The decision to split Warner Bros. and Discovery Global is similar to Comcast’s plan to spinoff NBCUniversal’s struggling cable portfolio into a new company called Versant. Just like Warner Bros., NBCU will be the new home for its studios, the streaming service Peacock, and the networks NBC and Bravo.
What does the Warner Bros. and Discovery Global split mean for subscribers?
The decline of linear TV is no secret. Since the introduction of the best streaming services, on-demand content has grown significantly in popularity, particularly for its accessibility, flexible pricing and convenience.
That’s left cable networks scrambling to tempt back viewers, and as a result many media companies have launched streaming services of their own to counter the decline in profits and help balance the financial strain.
One way to help offset that debt is to restructure a business, which is exactly what WBD has done, splitting off its burdened cable networks from its most profitable assets, including its streaming service HBO Max.
However, the move also means that its other streaming platforms, Discovery+ and CNN (not the service that was shut down in 2022 but the new one launching later this year), will now be part of Discovery Global. While the platform – which is known for real-life entertainment and includes content from networks such as Magnolia Network, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel – will remain independent, subscribers can expect some changes to the content they see.
The biggest potential change is that HBO Max will likely no longer be the home for sports content from its TNT Sports and Bleacher Reports networks in the US. That will likely be the same for CNN content that’s currently available on HBO Max, too (although WBD has said that CNN Max will remain, despite the launch of its new standalone service).
However, while that’s not yet confirmed for those in the US, a WBD spokesperson has reportedly told RXTV that TNT Sports will be available on HBO Max when it eventually launches in the UK sometime in 2026.
It’s not yet clear how the split will impact the content you see on HBO Max and Discovery+, but considering that both platforms have been merging some of their content together in the years since WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, there’s bound to be some changes to subscribers next year as the two companies separate.
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