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Discovery, home to HGTV, Food Network and the Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week, enters the streaming space with Discovery Plus.
Discovery Plus will start at $ 4.99 with an ad-supported tier, along with an ad-free option of $ 6.99. CNBC first reported the news. The streaming service will launch on January 4, 2021. The company aims to offer the service in more than 25 countries around the world over the next year. Each subscriber’s account will allow up to five different profiles and four simultaneous streams. The company’s press release does not specify whether Discovery Plus will offer content in 4K, but notes that it will be available on “major platforms, including smart TVs, the web, mobiles and tablets” at launch.
As part of the rollout, Discovery is partnering with Verizon to offer a number of the telecommunications company’s 55 million customers a free year of Discovery Plus without ads. New and existing customers on Verizon’s “Play More or Get More Unlimited” plan will receive one year of Discovery Plus free. Customers on “Start or Do More Unlimited” plans will receive six months free. On the Internet side, new customers who sign up for Verizon 5G Home Internet or Fios Gigabit Connection will receive one year of Discovery Plus free.
The company’s collection of notable brands is probably what executives are banking on. CEO David Zaslav spoke about the company’s approach at a recent conference, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, noting that “super fans” will want a place to watch their favorite personalities from their favorite shows on networks like HGTV (Property Brothers) or the Food Network (Guy Fieri, Ina Garten) – and more. There are also plans for original content that would be exclusively available on Discovery Plus.
“We’ve been aggressive in generating additional original content … we think you need a substantial amount of original content,” Zaslav said.
In an effort to make a competitive play in space, Discovery has prepared a number of original series to get people to sign up in addition to fan favorites, and will launch with over 55,000 TV episodes. . The original content “will premiere 52 weeks a year,” according to Zaslav. A complete list of originals is available at The Streamable, but some of the exclusive originals Discovery Plus will host include:
- New 90 day fiancé series, and houses the set 90 day fiancé universe
- A new Medium Long Island series
- A new travel and food series starring Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis of Food Networks.
- New House hunters series
- A new series from Chip and Joanna Gaines of Magnolia Network
Discovery is not a gigantic conglomerate in the way many of its streaming competitors (Disney, WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal) are, but niche streamers have already found their way. Crunchyroll, which is aimed at anime fans, has over 3 million subscribers. Shudder, a streamer dedicated to horror content, broke the 1 million paid subscriber mark this year. The WWE network has over 1.6 million subscribers.
Still, there is no doubt that the competition is tough even for the biggest players. While Disney Plus could surpass 100 million subscribers by the end of the year, and Netflix likely surpass 200 million subscribers, new entrants like HBO Max and Peacock are growing slower. Part of that has to do with new challenges creating content this year due to the pandemic, but analysts and experts are also concerned that the space, especially in the United States, is oversaturated.
However, in the year that every business has switched to streaming, it’s no surprise that companies like Discovery are trying to find new ways to attract subscribers and grow recurring revenue.
Update December 2 at 12:33 p.m. ET: The story has been updated to include additional information about the event.
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