Although inflation has affected domestic purchasing power, series and movies remain part of the Colombian entertainment agenda and streaming platforms are eyeing expanding their services. Evidence of this is the merger between Warner Media and Discovery, which resulted in warner bros discovery And that it will merge with HBO Max, converging on a single platform that will receive subscribers at the end of the first half of 2023. So, for Fernando Medine, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery for Latin America, this The differentiating factor of the service will be the variation of the content.
What is integration between platforms?
The vision was to unite a group of companies: Warner Bros., Discovery, Turner Broadcasting System and now HBO Max. The main thing set as a goal is to give each business its own segment and none should be ancillary or complementary to the other.
In the past, everyone was betting on where to put streaming. Our vision is to have a very strong broadcast product, which is why we believe we will emerge stronger as a contextual player with an all-content platform and a global presence, because apart from streaming, there is pay and open television 50 Reaching over 220 regions with languages.
What will differentiate this new platform compared to other players?
The combination of platform and content generation with global presence makes us unique. This is what will separate us from the rest.
What are the projections for 2023?
The biggest project is the launch of the streaming platform, which will be a combination of the already existing HBO Max and Discovery+.
We will be present in all presentation genres like movies and series and in all film genres. This is what leads someone to subscribe or not to subscribe to a platform: a particular series or movie.
There will be a very wide variation in our content for this. We will incur significant costs for our brands, as marketing for new productions will become necessary as people consume more and more content.
Why?
Consumption of all platforms is high. I want to break the concept that pay television is coming to an end, it’s just that the consumption of it is different. Streaming gives you abundant content and more features so that it can be accessed at any time.
How will subscription work?
It will be a single subscription, as the content of both will be combined with an organization that makes sense to the consumer. There will be local products that will have significant growth for other markets.
Once upon a time there was talk of free streaming plans, but what about advertisements?
There will be no free plan for streaming. Now let us focus on two plans: one with a fixed price without ads and the other with a lower price but with a limited amount of ads.
Will there be investment for productions soon?
In more conceptual terms, productions are not the usual investments for pre-production and talent. We want the best talent for the best stories and sometimes you have to do it with four hands and we’re willing to do it, we have a history that backs us up and great job for us in that sense does. On the other hand, there are already products that we are working on in Colombia that strengthen the local but, I emphasize, the most important thing is that they can go out and expand in the world. .
