Discovery Hits 18 Million Paid Streaming Subscribers

That’s up from 15 million at the end of April

Discovery+

Discovery, Inc. has reached 18 million total paid streaming subscribers as of today, seven months since the Jan. 4 debut of Discovery+, the David Zaslav-led company revealed in its Q2 earnings reported Tuesday.

That number encompassed the company’s entire portfolio, including international direct-to-consumer products, like Eurosport Player and GolfTV, but the vast majority of the tally are paying Discovery+ customers.

“We continued to steadily execute in our emerging next generation businesses, with 17 million paying direct-to-consumer subscribers at the end of the quarter, and 18 million as of today,” CEO David Zaslav said in a statement Tuesday.

Discovery reported that it ended Q1 “with 13 million global next generation paying direct-to-consumer subscribers” and had reached a cross-portfolio total of 15 million as of April 28.

Discovery+ costs $4.99 per month with ads or $6.99 without ads.

Discovery’s streaming platform had “the largest-ever content offering of any new streaming service” at its January launch, per Discovery, including more than 50 original titles and over 150 hours of exclusive content,” like the preview of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network, which launched in full July 15.

Overall, Discovery+ features more than 55,000 episodes from more than 2,500 series across Discovery’s vast swath of networks, including HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, OWN, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

Soon, Discovery will be the owner of another streaming service, HBO Max, as the company is set to acquire its owner, WarnerMedia, from AT&T. That will give Discovery plenty more built-in customers, with HBO and HBO Max currently boasting a combined 47 million U.S. subscribers, per AT&T’s second-quarter earnings results, which were revealed July 22.

Zaslav will run the newly combined WarnerMedia and Discovery company, which will be called Warner Bros. Discovery, after the deal passes regulatory hurdles and eventually closes. We do not yet have a good estimate on when that will be, but the result will certainly be formidable.

Discovery, Inc. reported its Q2 earnings results Tuesday morning. You can read more about those here.

More to come…

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