All of the HBO Max original series, that were recently and inexplicably pulled by the service, could now be sold on non-exclusively to other streaming services according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
Speaking with THR, Zaslav says Warners is concentrating on creating and producing more “engaging original content”. As a result, some low rated back catalogue series could go elsewhere seeing as HBO Max has such a large existing content library with which they could monetise:
“Our whole library went on HBO Max, and we weren’t selling any of it, but it was all on there. Most of this is not being watched. Or, we don’t think anybody is subscribing because of this. We can sell it non-exclusively to somebody else. Look at this huge library that we have.”
Part of this effort may be due to Zaslav revealing that HBO lost $3 billion in 2021 despite investing about $7 billion on programmes. As a result, they are reassessing the content on HBO Max and finding a more sustainable way to spend its money.
Zaslav also reaffirmed that the company will launch a free ad-supported streaming service to compete with Pluto and Tubi. The company is also reportedly interested in renewing its NBA deal, but it will be “very disciplined” in doing so.
