Warner Bros Discovery Crisis - Variety: Boomerang Cartoon Streaming Service Is Being Shut Down by Warner Bros. Discovery

Story from Variety:

Zoinks! After more than seven years, Boomerang, the cartoon streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery, is shutting down as a standalone service.

Boomerang will be shut down next month, and its catalog of shows — including “Scooby-Doo,” “Looney Tunes,” “Tom and Jerry,” “The Flintstones,” “Courage the Cowardly Dog” and more — will become part of Max. “As of September 30, 2024, the Boomerang app and website will no longer be available,” the service says in a notice on its customer website.

“Starting September 30, you can watch fan-favorite Boomerang shows alongside Max’s full catalog of iconic series, hit movies, fresh originals, breaking news, and family favorites including ‘The Amazing World of Gumball,’ ‘Teen Titans Go!,’ ‘Lego Batman’ and more!” Boomerang says in the customer notice.

As of next month, most Boomerang subscribers will be migrated to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max ad-free tier, retaining their current subscription price for a minimum of six months. Currently, Boomerang costs $5.99/month, whereas Max With Ads is $9.99/month.

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the Boomerang TV classic cartoons channel will continue to be available through partner pay-TV providers.

The Boomerang streaming service originally launched in 2017 when the company was still called Time Warner (prior to the close of its acquisition by AT&T and subsequently sale to Discovery).

Earlier this year, the company similarly shut down the MotorTrend+ automotive streaming service and migrated the content to Discovery+ and Max. In that case, most MotorTrend+ customers were automatically switched over to Discovery+’s ad-free plan.

Media companies once saw the opportunity to offer different interest-oriented streaming services at varying price points. But they’ve increasingly moved to consolidate or bundle their streaming businesses together in a bid to save costs, cut churn and boost engagement.

For example, Disney has integrated Hulu with Disney+ and is aggressively pushing the price-discounted bundle with both services (as well as the three-way bundle that also includes ESPN+). Paramount Global killed off its Showtime and Noggin standalone streaming services, merging those content catalogs with the flagship Paramount+ streamer.