Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter Communications have clinched a multi-year distribution partnership that includes Max and Discovery+ tiers for Charter subscribers, a deal they said “further evolves the video ecosystem with more value and flexibility in video bundles, deeper libraries and more choice to better align with customers’ current viewing preferences.”
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The deal is in line with other agreements Charter has struck with Disney and Paramount that add streamers to its cable bundle. WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels indicated at a media conference last week that the company would be open to a similar setup.
The news comes as his boss, CEO David Zaslav, is set to speak at a Goldman Sachs confab this afternoon and will finally have some decent news to discuss. He needs some after WBD took a massive write-down on its linear television assets and fell short of Wall Street financial forecasts in the second quarter as it continues to struggle post-merger. Charter is the nation’s largest video provider. Deals with Comcast and others are coming up for renewal as well.
The shares, which lost about 70% over the last several years, are up 4% in early trading. Warner has most likely lost the NBA and many investors believe this new round of carriage renewals without basketball are critical for the company.
“This innovative partnership with Charter recognizes the value of our linear content and the investments we’ve made in premium original programming, sports and news, while also significantly expanding the distribution of Max’s ad-supported service to Spectrum’s millions of Select customers,” Zaslav said today. “We did this agreement together nearly a year early to set a framework for the future and to provide more consumers access to our unparalleled content offering while giving the industry more resilience as it evolves. We are pleased this achieves each of our company’s objectives.”
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The deal will offer Max (Ad Lite), including all HBO and Max content as well as Discovery+, across all Spectrum TV Select packages at no extra charge to customers. Spectrum’s bundle will offer nearly $60per month of retail DTC value included when added to Disney+, ESPN+, Paramount+, AMC+, BET+ and Vix.
Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said the deal “further evolves the linear and broadband video distribution model and supports Spectrum’s efforts to provide flexible packages, whether through hybrid linear-DTC full video relationships, smaller video packages with DTC add-ons, or a suite of a-la-carte or bundled DTC options for broadband customers. … The inclusion of the ad-supported version of Max and Discovery+ in our most popular packages at no additional cost ensures we provide the most value to our customers.”
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed but the partners said it “favorably extends Spectrum’s carriage of WBD’s linear network portfolio, including TNT, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, TLC, Discovery, TBS, Adult Swim and Investigation Discovery.” It also establishes Max as a “preferred partner” for Spectrum when marketing and selling DTC apps and bundles to broadband subscribers.
Spectrum plans for a full deployment of its DTC distribution to broadband customers in 2025, following the 2024 deployment of its DTC inclusion and upgrade offers. Spectrum’s DTC distribution plan will include separate pricing, packaging and billing capabilities for DTC video services to broadband customers.
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