After Deliberately Leaving Sports And CNN Out Of Its Max Rebrand Event, What Does Warner Bros Discovery Have Up Its Streaming Sleeve?

deadline.com:

Although an introductory video at Wednesday’s Warner Bros Discovery streaming event included clips of NBA star LeBron James and CNN host Anderson Cooper, the rest of the presentation was strikingly sports- and news-free.

CEO David Zaslav said the omissions were entirely intentional. Sports and news are “vibrant parts” of the company that “will be key to our long-term streaming strategy,” Zaslav said in his opening remarks. “In a few months,” he added, “we’ll come back to you with details of our attack plan to use this important and differentiating live content to grow our streaming business even further.” Plans for harnessing the power of live programming can take a while to come together, as media rivals like Disney, NBCUniversal and Paramount Global have discovered in their respective streaming adventures.

The equation has many variables, including a declining but still lucrative pay-TV ecosystem, a frothy market for sports rights with a number of hungry tech players throwing cash around. RELATED: Deadline’s Full Coverage Of Max Launch Event As a general entertainment streaming service, WBD’s rebranded Max is never likely to lean heavily toward live news and sports, but there has long been an inclination to try.

Randall Stephenson, former CEO of AT&T, promised Wall Street in 2019 that those categories would be part of HBO Max when its then-subsidiary WarnerMedia was working toward launch.