Warner Bros Discovery previously faced backlash with their tax write-offs, which including cancelling the movie Batgirl. Now Warner Bros Discovery has made another controversial decision by removing several high-profile shows from HBO Max.
As noted via THR, this is apparently a new plan for Warner Bros Discovery to sell a variety of HBO and HBO Max programs. The programs will be packaged as a bundle for third-party free, ad-supported streaming services.
Here’s a list of some of the shows that were recently removed from HBO Max, including the recently-cancelled Westworld, as a result:
Westworld
The Nevers
FBoy Island
Legendary
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Raised by Wolves
This announcement included a statement from Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy:
“We are incredibly proud of Westworld and the remarkable work of our cast and crew,” they began. “We are excited to have the opportunity to welcome a whole new audience to our show.”
Additionally, as HBO Max removes a number of other titles, it’s been stated that the company “is speaking with the studio partners about opportunities to further expand the reach of the shows, including but not limited to licensing the series to third party FAST platforms.”
The list of these shows includes The Gordita Chronicles, Love Life, Minx, and Made for Love. As such, we’ll have to see what happens with these programs. But it’s clear that HBO Max will be greatly restructuring its catalogue in an effort to be both cost-effective and condensed.
This comes not long after Warner Bros Discovery made a recent securities filing. As further noted by THR, it was stated that they’d be taking “writeoffs and impairments related to content and development costs of $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion, up from $2 billion to $2.5 billion as initially projected in October. That reflects an additional charge of $800 million to $1 billion.” Additionally, “WBD now says its total restructuring and impairment charges related to the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger will be between $4.1 billion and $5.3 billion, reflecting the higher content writeoffs.”
We’ll likely have more updates and details in the coming months, if not weeks. So stay tuned to ScreenGeek for more news regarding the company and its streaming service as we have it.