Shares in Warner Bros. Discovery fell Wednesday after the Hollywood studio unveiled Max, its revamped streaming service that combines programming from both the original HBO Max streaming service and Discovery+.
Shares in WBD fell 87 cents, or just under 6 percent, to $14.00 after executives revealed the plan to reorganize its flagship streaming service.
Shares of the company were trading at $15.07 on Wednesday ahead of a press event in Los Angeles for the unveiling of Max, which launches May 23, as a more mainstream streaming offering for consumers outside of HBO’s core audience.
The newly combined streamer Max, which follows the $43 billion merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery last year, aims to better compete with Netflix and Disney+ in the online video arena.
WBD hopes stocks in the studio will recover as investors process new programming for the Max service, including Harry Potter And Conjure it TV shows, a new one Game of Thrones spin-off based on author George RR Martin’s Dunken and Egg novellas and a new one big bang theory spinoff.
To date, WBD has 96.1 million streaming subscribers on HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+. The company has not broken down its subscriber numbers by service, even though Discovery+ remains a standalone service.
Stocks in rival streaming services also had a bad day on Thursday. Netflix saw its share fall by $7.18, or just over 2 percent, to $331.03, while Walt Disney, which has moved away from linear TV with Disney+, lost its shares by $2.48, or about 2.5 percent. percent, fell to $97.94.
