Discovery home of Shark Week HGTV and Food Network enters the streaming wars with Discovery Plus
Discovery, home to HGTV, Food Network, and Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week, is entering the streaming space with Discovery Plus. Discovery Plus will start at $4.99 with an ad-supported tier, along with a $6.99 ad-free option. CNBC first reported the news. The streaming service will launch on January 4th, 2021. The company aims to bring the service to more than 25 countries around the world
over the next year. Each subscriber’s account will allow up to five different profiles, and four concurrent streams. The company’s press release does not note if Discovery Plus will offer content in 4K, but notes it will be available on “major platforms, including connected TVs, web, mobile, and tablets” at launch. Roku and Amazon are in negotiations right now to carry Discovery Plus, but deals have not been reached. As part of the roll out, Discovery is partnering with Verizon to give a number of the telecom company’s 55 million customers a free year of ad-free Discovery Plus. New and existing customers on Verizon’s “Play More or Get More Unlimited” plan will get a 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 a year of free Discovery Plus.
Introducing discovery+, the only streaming service with the greatest real-life entertainment from your favorite TV brands - @hgtv, @FoodNetwork, @TLC, @DiscoveryID, @OWNTV, @AnimalPlanet, @Discovery + exclusive originals and more. #StreamWhatYouLove, coming January 4. pic.twitter.com/Mb2aqEAjgx— discovery+ (@DiscoveryPlus) December 2, 2020
The company’s collection of notable brands is likely 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 then some. There are also plans for original content that would be exclusively available on Discovery Plus. “We have been aggressively driving additional original content … we think you need a substantial amount of original content,” Zaslav said. In an effort to make a competitive play in the space, Discovery has prepped a number of original series to entice people to sign up on top of fan favorites, and will launch with over 55,000 episodes of television. Original content will “premiere 52 weeks a year,” according to Zaslav. A full list of originals can be found on The Streamable, but some of the exclusive originals that Discovery Plus will host include:
New 90 Day Fiance series, and home to the entire 90 Day Fiance universe A new Long Island Medium series A new travel and food series starring Food Networks’ Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis. New House Hunters series A new series from Magnolia Network’s Chip and Joanna Gaines
Discovery isn’t a mammoth conglomerate in the same way that many of its streaming competitors are (Disney, WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal), but niche streamers have found their places before. Crunchyroll, which caters to anime fans, has more than 3 million subscribers. Shudder, a streamer dedicated to horror content, passed the 1 million paid subscribers mark this year. The WWE Network has more than 1.6 million subscribers. Still, there’s no question that competition is tough, even for the biggest players. While Disney Plus may pass 100 million subscribers by the end of the year, and Netflix is likely past 200 million subscribers, new entrants like HBO Max and Peacock are seeing slower growth. Part of that has to do with newfound difficulties creating content this year because of the pandemic, but there are also concerns from analysts and experts that the space, especially within the United States, is oversaturated. In the year that every company pivoted to streaming, however, it’s no surprise that corporations like Discovery are trying to find new ways to pull in subscribers and develop recurring revenue. Update December 2nd 12:33pm ET: The story was updated to include additional information from the event.
Author: Julia Alexander
Date: 2020-12-02
theverge.com
| Comcast to impose home internet data cap of 1.2TB in more than a dozen US states next year (2020-11-23) | Next year Comcast plans to charge home internet customers in northeastern US states for going over 12TB of data in a month a cap thats already in effect for customers on non-unlimited plans in other parts of the country In January and February Comcast will give its Xfinity customers not on an unlimited plan a credit for any data usage charges over 12TB during those months to ease them into the new.. |
| The baby blue Google Pixel 4A is real, and you can buy one right now (2020-11-16) | If youve been put off by the astoundingly excellent-for-$349 Google Pixel 4A because it only comes in black you should know thats no longer true In September we got wind that Google originally intended to offer a baby blue color too and you can now officially buy it at Googles website for the same $349 price orange power button and all Its apparently a limited edition product since Googles saying .. |
| SpaceX’s Crew Dragon docks crew of four to the International Space Station (2020-11-16) | Image: NASA SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station this evening more than a day after launching to space from Florida The vehicles arrival marks the beginning of the first long-duration mission for the Crew Dragon a type of flight the spacecraft will perform periodically for NASA over the next few years Inside the Crew Dragon are NASA astronauts Mik.. |
| Black Ops Cold War is four Call of Duty games all competing to take over your hard drive (2020-11-24) | Image: Activision The new Call of Duty is a bloated mess even when the individual parts succeed Its impossible to discuss the new Call of Duty game without mentioning its size The sheer magnitude of the software in total gigabytes has become perhaps the most defining and talked-about aspect of the long-running shooter series since the reboot of Modern Warfare last fall and the launch of Activision.. |
| Black Friday deals: what time sales start at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and more (2020-11-23) | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Black Friday will officially kick off on Friday November 27th but if you plan to make that the only day you buy gifts for the holiday season you are missing out Several retailers including Amazon Best Buy and Target are already getting a head start on holiday discounts Whether you take advantage of the deals now or hold off until Black Friday its important t.. |
| Contact tracing app for England and Wales failed to flag people exposed to COVID-19 (2020-11-02) | Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images The COVID-19 exposure notification app used in England and Wales failed to warn users if they were in close contact with potentially infectious COVID-19 patients Because of the error thousands of people were not told to quarantine even when they should have been according to the Sunday Times which first reported the flaw The app was launched on September 24.. |
| Apple’s 10.2-inch iPad is up to $70 off in Best Buy’s Black Friday sale (2020-11-26) | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Best Buy is offering a pair of great deals on Apples recently-released 102-inch iPad with offers of up to $70 off The retailer has knocked $50 off the price of the base 32GB model which is now $280 compared to its usual asking price of $330 Meanwhile the 128GB model which is the model we recommended most people should buy is $70 less than its usual price of $430 at.. |
| Developers can now sign up for Apple’s reduced 15 percent App Store cut (2020-12-03) | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has opened enrollment in its new small business program that will allow eligible app developers to receive 15 percent more from App Store sales the company announced on Thursday Apple says the vast majority of developers on the App Store who sell digital goods and services are eligible and all developers need to do to qualify is complete the companys e.. |
| Google Pay’s massive relaunch makes it an all-encompassing money app (2020-11-18) | Image: Google It will include tap-to-pay peer-to-peer personal finance aggregation customizable deals and even full banking services Today Google Pay for both Android and iOS is relaunching with a giant array of new features It turns the app from something that most people think of as a tap-to-pay card repository or peer-to-peer payment system into a much more ambitious service The new app begins .. |
| Here are the best iPad deals right now (2020-11-27) | Photo by Brennan King / The Verge Deals on Apples iPad are more common than you might think Whether youre after the most affordable iPad the high-end iPad Pro or something in between like the iPad Air or iPad Mini theres usually some sort of price cut happening somewhere Of course its difficult to know exactly where you can find those deals unless youre looking around at all of the major retailers.. Here are the best iPad deals right now |
