1) I don't know whose post you quoted in the first paragraph because it wasn't mine. I never wrote, "The New Service will be Discovery+."
What I have said consistently is that beginning next summer, starting in the USA, a new platform will be launched under a new yet-to-be-announced name that will integrate HBO Max with Discovery+.
2) Not every title on Discovery+ is available in every region. The original plan was to launch more of this content originally produced for North American audiences in Europe on Discovery+ for the first time and vice-versa. Those plans are canceled. Instead, this content will be offered to their traditional linear content partners (TV, cable, satellite) and some other streaming services first. In most of these cases, these shows are being pulled off the streaming platform even in their original form. If you didn't know, a great deal of Discovery content is re-produced for international audiences. For example, a show first intended for North America but planned for distribution in the UK and Ireland will have the American narrator replaced with someone from either country with the appropriate accent. Discovery also repurposes a lot of its English language content into multiple languages for different markets, either dubbing the speakers or subtitling them. The CEO wants to first monetize this content through traditional distributors because they can make more money than just 'dumping it' on a streaming service where you pay one price for everything. In the words of the CEO, you devalue your product by not offering exclusive geoblocked limited licensing for linear content partners before putting it on streaming. If it is already available on your streaming platform, say in English, content partners will pay much less for that content if they feel a substantial part of their audience is already comfortable watching English language shows and watched it on, say, Discovery+.
3) I report on this industry professionally, but much of this information is also available from investor presentations and conferences, some available to the public. Many of these concepts and strategies were touched on in David Zaslav's August 4th second quarter earnings call. You can listen to a replay of this event until at least Sept. 4 here:
https://ir.corporate.discovery.com/...cond-Quarter-2022-Earnings-Call-/default.aspx. You may have trouble on that website clicking to open links. If so, right click and choose "open in a new tab." This will get you to the website that archives their shareholder presentations and events, which you need to register on to access. At least 75% of what I wrote about is covered in that event alone. The slide attached below also references the concept, emphasizing the new push towards licensing content for traditional linear TV partners.
Remember we always will pick a provider that is available to the many, not just a few. If you are from a country that has only 1 streaming channel I feel your pain, but that will not attract people to the program.
