AT&T’s sale of WarnerMedia to Discovery is moving ahead as planned and the company is slowly starting to provide more details about what will happen after it’s finalized.
During a Morgan Stanley investor conference, AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches was asked whether AT&T would continue bundling HBO Max with its wireless plans after the deal closes. He said he expects that his company will reach a commercial agreement to continue to bundle HBO Max.
“We think it’s a good service for our customers but we also think it’s a good distribution for the new Warner Bros. Discovery business,” he said.
It’s still unclear how HBO Max and Discovery+ will work side by side in the combined company but Discovery has hinted at first offering them together and then combining them into one app. Earlier this month during Discovery’s earnings call, JB Perrette, president and CEO of Discovery Streaming and International, said that post-merger there may be two phases: an initial phase that allows for quick bundling of the services and a second phase that allows for a common service on one tech platform.
RELATED: Discovery+, HBO Max may bundle before combining after merger
Desroches didn’t offer much in terms of an update on the regulatory approval process for the deal but did say that his company expects the merger will close in the first half of 2022. Discovery and AT&T had previously been targeting a mid-2022 close date.
AT&T earlier this year closed its deal to spin off DirecTV but maintain a 70% interest in the combined linear TV distribution business.
“The company is performing incredibly well under [DirecTV CEO] Bill Morrow’s leadership. They’re focused, they’re driving efficiencies and at the same time they’re moderating some of the losses that we’ve seen in the past. So, we feel really good about how they’re performing and we think it gives us an option to do other things in the future,” Desroches said.