Warner Bros. revealed. Discovery about Max

New York (CNN) Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday unveiled Max, its premium streaming device that unites some of the company’s most iconic brands under one roof and aims to compete aggressively in a streaming market where the traditional linear TV business is rapidly declining.

The new service, announced by CEO David Zaslav at a press event on Wednesday, will launch on May 23 and will give consumers access to a large library of software across the Warner Bros. portfolio. Discovery Broad: Warner Bros. And HBO, HGTV, Food Network, Cartoon Network, TLC, and more.

“He’s the one to watch, because we have so many franchises that are famous and globally recognized. It’s our superpower,” said Zaslav, referring to the service’s tagline. He added that the streaming platform is a service that “every family member” can go to for entertainment.

Maximum subscribers can choose from three price levels. The cheapest is $9.99 per month and ads will appear. The ad-free version will cost $15.99, which is the price of the company’s current HBO Max service. This tier will allow customers to stream on two devices simultaneously and download up to 30 titles, but the content will only be available in HD instead of 4K.

Users who want higher-resolution 4K streams will have to purchase the “ultimate plan” Max for $19.99 per month, which includes up to four simultaneous streams, 100 downloads, and Dolby Atmos audio.

Existing HBO Max customers will be transferred to the new service without any action on their part. A Warner Bros. spokesperson said: Discovery told CNN that those users can keep existing features like 4K HDR for a limited time before they’re required to move to the Ultimate plan.

The Max platform was born out of the massive merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery that was announced in 2021 and completed last year. Warner Bros. Inc. Discovery is also the parent company of CNN.

“Plan of attack” for news and sports

Company executives have described the combined streaming service as unique in its content mix: It pairs award-winning prestige shows like HBO’s “Succession” and “House of the Dragon” with unscripted shows like HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” and ” 90 Day Fiancé” for TLC. “

Zaslav also hinted that news and sports programming will go into service in the future, given that Warner Bros. Discovery owns properties like Turner Sports and CNN.

“We are a global leader in sports and a global leader in news,” Zaslav said. “And within a few months, we will get back to you on our plan of attack to use this important and featured content to grow our broadcast business further.”

Max’s service represents the future of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is rooted in the traditional television business that is declining as audiences turn to streaming.

Other companies involved in the cable business have also moved in recent years to launch streaming platforms, including Disney (dis)and NBC and Paramount. But none of these companies became successful Netflix (NFLX)which has been a pioneer in the live broadcasting industry and has more than 230 million global subscribers.

Warner Bros. hopes. Discovery hopes to have 130 million subscribers by 2025. At the launch event, the company’s head of broadcast Jean-Briac Perrette discussed several improvements to the HBO Max interface to increase retention and engagement, adding that the company has invested in machine learning so home feeds can recommend content using “The human plus machine approach”.

But subscriber growth for streaming services has slowed in recent years as the market has become more saturated. Some companies have introduced ad-supported low-price plans to lure people in.

Increasingly, executives have moved to highlight profitability over subscriber growth as the most important measure of a company’s success. Even Netflix announced last year that it would stop offering guidance to its membership, stating that the company is “increasingly focused on revenue as our key underlying metric.”