Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) grew its streaming business to serve nearly 117 million customers around the world, the company disclosed last Thursday.
The company earned $2.65 billion from its direct-to-consumer streaming businesses during the fourth quarter (Q40 of 2025, up 5 percent on a year-over basis and accounting for more than a quarter of the $10.03 billion earned by WBD during the period.
Like other media companies, WBD has reoriented its focus away from its traditional linear TV networks — it owns dozens of them in the United States and abroad, including the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, CNN, TNT and Cartoon Network, among others — in favor of distributing TV shows, films sports and news through its own connected TV platforms.
It operates two: Discovery Plus, which is available around the world, and Max (formerly HBO Max), which continues to launch in new countries on a regular basis. Later this month, Max will debut in Australia, where it will offer TV shows and movies from its domestic and international library.
“In this generational media disruption, only the global streamers will survive and prosper, and Max is just that,” David Zaslav, the CEO of WBD, said on a conference call with investors and reporters last Thursday.
Last week, WBD announced it would drop its plan to charge Max customers in the United States an additional $10 per month to access live sports content through the B/R Sports add-on package. Instead, live sports will be available to all subscribers of Max’s Standard or Premium tiers, which start at $17 per month and includes commercial-free streaming of on-demand content.
Those with the ad-supported version of Max will have to upgrade their subscription if they want access to live sports through the app. The same goes for news enthusiasts who stream content from CNN Max, which will be available only to Max Standard and Max Premium subscribers starting March 30.
