The streaming wars are heating up as companies approach their audiences with catalogs of material ready to go. Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) gained nicely in Thursday afternoon trading thanks to news that it’s already polishing its latest weapon – a new streaming service with a target release date of sometime this spring.
The word came straight from CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, who offered several key points about the upcoming service. Perhaps biggest of all, Wiedenfels revealed that even Warner Bros. Discovery thinks that the HBO Max service represents a “subpar” user experience. This suggests a substantial shift to the user interface whenever the new service rolls out. Additionally, Wiedenfels made no real attempt to clear up what the service’s name would be. This suggests that “Max” might be the name of choice, after all.
Oh, and those hoping for more news about canceled projects taken for write-offs will also be disappointed. The cost-cutting frenzy that marked late 2022 is also out, as Wiedenfels called the entire period “…a reflection of an industry that went overboard.” Such is already evident; Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the plug on a string of Looney Tunes and Flintstones shorts, which will no longer appear on the service. However, given that Warner owns the copyrights for both, this may be an example of Warner circling the wagons ahead of a relaunch this spring.
Wall Street is cautiously optimistic about Warner Bros. Discovery’s upcoming fate. Currently, analyst consensus calls it a Moderate Buy. The stock’s average price target of $18.44 gives it 71.53% upside potential as well.
