The Streaming Wars Are Now the Takeover Wars
Discovery's merger pursuit suggests companies as big as ViacomCBS still aren't big enough to compete when tech and media giants are on the prowl.
Can’t keep track of all those streaming apps? Don’t worry, you won’t have to. Soon there will only be a few.
Photographer: Vertigo3d/E+The streaming wars are about to become the takeover wars. First WarnerMedia and Discovery, now Amazon and MGM — the dominoes are in motion.
AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. stunned investors Monday with the announcement that they’re linking up to build a streaming-video super-app to take on more formidable rivals such as Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video and Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+. The deal will stitch together WarnerMedia’s collection of iconic Hollywood assets with Discovery’s reality-TV empire, as well as their respective streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+. While it’s structured as a complex Reverse Morris Trust transaction, it’s billed as a straightforward merger. That’s by design, because the subtext is AT&T undoing its ill-advised 2018 takeover of Time Warner Inc. and running away from the streaming wars as fast as it can.