With the streaming market increasingly competitive, every move a streamer makes can reflect almost immediately on its stock price. Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) slid over 5% in Wednesday’s trading session after revealing a couple key points about a possible upcoming strategy.
The first major point that Warner released was that Discovery+ would remain a stand-alone service. There were some plans to consolidate services, but those plans appear scuttled for the time being. This represents a significant shift from an earlier strategy that featured Warner going heavily in on bundling. Now, reports suggest there will be some bundling involved, but not completely. The new platform will pull in content from HBO Max as well as Discovery+. However, Discovery+ will still be available as its own product.
It’s a safe bet Warner didn’t want to lose subscribers–up to around 20 million subscribed to Discovery itself–who didn’t want to pay more for the content they were already enjoying. Other reports suggest HBO Max’s content might yet merge with Discovery+ in a new product that will come later on. Also, a look at the last three months of trading in Warner—which shows the stock was up 47.97%—suggests some profit-taking may have taken place.
Overall, analyst consensus right now calls Warner Bros Discovery stock a Moderate Buy. Moreover, thanks to its average price target of $20.21, it has 38.8% upside potential.
