Variety: Warner Bros. Discovery Expects Max Subscribers to Rise More Than 6 Million in Q3

Story from Variety:

More than six million subscribers signed up for Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streaming service in the third quarter, according to the company’s CEO.

Speaking at an investor conference held by Goldman Sachs, Warner CEO David Zaslav said Max represented one of the company’s best opportunities for growth, and said “we are scaling, we are scaling globally.” He did not describe the kind of subscribers that had signed up and whether or not they had come in via a promotional deal or discount.

Zaslav said the company, which has struggled to cut billions in debt while remaining competitive in the entertainment sector, has moved into “stage two” of its corporate arc after absorbing the Warner TV and studio assets from former owner AT&T. He was pleased with a new carriage pact announced Thursday with Charter Communications that make ad-supported Max available to certain tiers of subscribers for no extra charge. Meanwhile, Zaslav said, Charter didn’t drop any of the company’s cable networks and paid more money overall for distributing them.

“We are looking forward to doing more things with Charter,” he said.

The executive expressed hope that Warner would be included in the NBA’s new 11-year deal with NBCUniversal, Amazon and Disney, even though the league has said it had decided to leave Warner after awarding its rights to the company for more than three decades. Warner has sued the league and the matter is making its way through the courts.

And Zaslav said the company saw Max as its key growth engine. He also said Warner Bros. Discovery would work to improve its overall studio business.