Warner Bros. Discovery made a giant leap with its Max and Discovery+ streaming platforms during the third quarter of 2024. The company announced in its earnings reports that the platforms added 7.2 million customers worldwide, which increased its total number to 110.5 million.
The numbers represent the number of subscribers as of September 30, and the 7.2 million new subscribers is the most the service has gained in a single quarter since its launch. Max became available in international markets earlier this year which is a big reason for the huge influx of new subscribers. The worldwide rollout will continue, with it launching in Southeast Asia, bringing it to 72 markets.
Back in May, WBD announced that Max gained 2 million subscribers in Q1, and hit a profit of $86 million. In Q3, the company reported that across its DTC platforms (HBO, Max and Discovery+), it gained a profit of $289 million. However, earlier this year, the conglomerate’s cable TV networks were struggling as they reported a loss of over $9 billion of value due to the changes in traditional viewing habits and cord cutting. Those networks include TBS, CNN, HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, TNT, TLC, TVN, and Eurosport.
Since then, the company has beefed up its DTC platforms, including introducing a personalization system to Max, which enhanced the homepage by giving users smarter recommendations based on their profile. In addition to personalization, Max has added more live sporting events that also simulstream on linear networks TNT and truTV.
CEO David Zaslav thinks the current trend of revenue, profit, and subscriber growth continuing for the company’s DTC platforms heading into the fourth quarter. The Q3 growth was aided by WBD having Olympic coverage on Max in international markets and the service has been offered in more bundles, including with Hulu and Disney+.
Zaslav had this to say about Q3: “Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q3 results demonstrate once again that while we continue to confront extraordinary disruption in our environment, the strategy we have undertaken to ready Warner Bros. Discovery for future success is showing important results. Thanks to our rapid international expansion and continued investment in high quality, diverse content, we saw momentum accelerate in our global Direct-to-Consumer business in Q3. In total, Max delivered 7.2 million net subscriber adds, the strongest quarterly gain since the platform’s launch, resulting in healthy subscriber-related revenue growth and meaningful progress toward achieving our 2025 Direct-to-Consumer segment financial objectives. Likewise, our recently announced strategic partnership with Charter Communications, for both linear network distribution and bundling of Max, not only reinforced the value of our content portfolio, but represented our willingness to work with our partners to enhance the consumers’ experience as our industry undergoes transformation.”
As the company continues to create strategies for the future for revenue, there have been reports the B/R Sports add-on could soon no longer be free. However, WBD has not stated when customers have to pay a fee for it as it has been free since its launch. Plus, WBD is suing the NBA after not being able to reach a deal to keep games on their networks and platforms past the 2024-25 season.