At & T and Discovery are ready to join forces to challenge Netflix and Disney- Corriere.it

Media giant prepares to confront Netflix and Disney: US telecom company AT&T is negotiating with Discovery to merge its media and entertainment companies to create Group of 150 billion. A deal is expected to be announced early this week Bloomberg. The Financial times He adds that the AT&T board met on Sunday to approve the deal.

The merger will bring together Warner Bros’ Hollywood movies and studios, HBO and CNN And a large selection of cable channels, Including Tnt and Tbs, With Discovery Streaming Channels, to attack the new frontier of entertainment: streaming content as evidenced by the extraordinary success of Netflix and Disney, but also Amazon, whose shutdowns and closings have accelerated during the pandemic.

Deal with This will mark a split from the consolidated media business under the WarnerMedia name and a merger with Discovery The end of AT&T’s convergence strategy so far, Which in recent years carried out a series of acquisitions in the media and entertainment sector to create a vertical group by combining telecommunications and media activities. This is an unexpected change, given that the $ 85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, which brought in some of the biggest global brands, was only completed in 2018. With the stated goal of creating one of the largest content and distribution collections.

At & T, through WarnerMedia, controls CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network, Tbs, Tnt and Warner Bros. Discovery succeeded by cable king John MaloneeCheck out networks like HGTV, Food Network, TLC, and Animal Planet.

At a time of great movement across the world of media, The American merger is also a lesson for players on this side of the ocean, who are looking for a fresh squad, Perhaps across borders, to win over the missing viewership of traditional television. Like Mediaset and Vivendi, who split their tracks after years of legal disputes. But also Telecom Italia, That someone would like to push it into the arms of Mediaset to combine content and distribution. If the deal goes through, America knows that vertical integration may no longer be a good idea in the post-Covid era.