Stock in Warner Bros Discovery slid on Wednesday after the Hollywood studio unveiled Max, its refreshed streaming service that combines programming from both the original HBO Max streaming service and Discovery+.Shares in Warner Bros Discovery fell by 87 cents, or just under 6 percent, to $14.00 after executives unveiled the plan to reorganize its flagship streaming service.Warner Bros Discovery’s stock opened trading on Wednesday at $15.07, ahead of a press event in Los Angeles for the unveiling of Max, set to launch on May 23, as a more mainstream streaming offering to consumers beyond the core HBO audience.The newly-combined streamer Max, which follows the $43 billion merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery last year, aims to better compete against Netflix and Disney+ in the online video arena.Warner Bros Discovery will hope that shares in the studio will rebound when investors digest new programming for the Max service, which includes Harry Potter and The Conjuring TV shows, a new Game of Thrones spinoff based on author George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas and a new Big Bang Theory spinoff.To date, Warner Bros Discovery has 96.1 million streaming subscribers across HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+. Warner Bros Discovery has not broken out its subscriber numbers per service, even as Discovery+ will remain a standalone service.Shares in rival streaming services also had a down day on Thursday. Netflix saw its stock fall by $7.18, or just over 2 percent, at $331.03, while Walt Disney, which has pivoted away from linear TV with Disney+, had its shares fall by $2.48, or around 2.5 percent, to $97.94.
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