Warner Bros. Discovery is shuttering its Boomerang streaming service . The Boomerang cable channel will live on.
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Boomerang operations will cease on September 30; some of its programming will be integrated into Max, WBD’s core streaming service. (There is already a decent amount of crossover to begin with.) And that’s exactly where Warner Bros. Discovery will send those Boomerang subscribers. Boomerang members will see their subscription automatically moved to Max’s ad-free tier with no change to their monthly price for a minimum of six months, a person with knowledge of the situation told IndieWire.
Until then, it’s a sweet deal: Boomerang cost $5.99 per month, Max’s ad-free plan is $16.99. Since everything (and we do mean everything) at WBD is a financial decision, you better believe that $11/month won’t be left on the table for any longer than it feels it has to.
Boomerang the linear channel launched in 2000; the streamer followed 17 years later.
“Exciting news…Boomerang will be moving to Max! As of September 30, 2024, the Boomerang app and website will no longer be available,” the website reads. “In the meantime, continue enjoying popular cartoons like ‘Scooby-Doo,’ ‘Looney Tunes,’ ‘Tom and Jerry,’ ‘The Flintstones,’ ‘Courage the Cowardly Dog’ and more!”
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All in, Warner Bros. Discovery has about 100 million direct-to-consumer subscribers , which includes its streaming services and the HBO linear channel. Max is the biggie, but Discovery+ is also still available as a standalone digital platform. WBD reports its second-quarter 2024 earnings on Wednesday, August 7; we’ll get an update on its DTC-subscriber count then.
The Boomerang blow is not the first to Warner Bros. Discovery’s many animation arms. In 2022, WBD merged the development and production teams of its Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation. Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe remained independent due mainly to its geographical distance. Cartoon Network Studios primarily created original shows, while WBA developed projects based on classic WB franchises, like Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes and DC Comics superheroes — you know, the Boomerang stuff.
Of course, even the iconic Looney Tunes has proven unsafe under David Zaslav’s debt-payoff desperation. Warner Bros. Discovery famously scrapped the basically-complete “Coyote vs. Acme” theatrical film in late 2023. WBD still has about $39 billion in debt created from the April 2022 merger between WarnerMedia (then part of AT&T) and Zaslav’s Discovery, Inc.
That wasn’t the end of the animation decimation. March of this year, the company shuttered Rooster Teeth , a pioneer in digital content. Rooster Teeth launched in 2003; it also had a standalone SVOD service.
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