The first press event for the merged Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery made the priority list clear: HBO Max and Paramount+ will eventually become one streaming app. David Ellison, Skydance chairman and CEO, said the long-term plan is unification, with a bundle likely to arrive sooner. One name never came up: Discovery+.
That silence is not because Discovery+ has vanished. The service still carries next-day programming from Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC and the rest of Discovery’s cable portfolio. It costs $5.99 a month with ads or $9.99 without.
The numbers behind the silence
Antenna’s August 2026 estimates show why Discovery+ got a back seat:
- Discovery+: 4.9 million paying U.S. subscribers, about half ad-supported.
- HBO Max: roughly 28.3 million paying U.S. subscribers, 12.9 million ad-supported.
- Paramount+: about 34.5 million paying U.S. subscribers, 12.8 million ad-supported.
The gap is wide, and it explains why Skydance’s new leadership spent day one on the larger services. Discovery+’s last reported global figure was 24 million subscribers in March 2022, before Warner Bros. Discovery was formed.
Why it shouldn’t be written off
Several sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Discovery+ is profitable, possibly in the low nine figures. Because it no longer funds original programming and relies on next-day cable shows, its operating costs are minimal; the cable networks carry the content burden. It also has relatively low churn, making it a reliable subscription and ad-supported revenue stream.
WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels made the case in February 2026 that the company had once tried to shut the service down, but “we still have millions of viewers who are very regularly engaged, who love the content.”
Skydance also inherited pan-European Olympic pay-TV and streaming rights through 2032, one lever Discovery+ has used to stay relevant in international markets.
What to watch next
For media planners, Discovery+ remains a niche AVOD/SVOD vehicle with loyal, engaged viewers—not a must-solve strategic problem. The more immediate signal is a Paramount+ and HBO Max bundle. Under an $80 billion debt load, Skydance is likely to work big to small. That suggests Discovery+ will keep operating, but without much management attention until the core streaming architecture is settled.
The frame for the industry is portfolio triage: when debt forces focus, a small, low-cost, cash-generating asset is rarely shut first. It is simply deprioritized. Casey Bloys now oversees streaming across HBO Max, Paramount+ and Pluto TV; Discovery+ was again absent from that announcement.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
