DISCOVERY+ SURPASSES 11 MILLION PAID STREAMING SUBSCRIBERS

Discovery, Inc. has surpassed 11 million total paid streaming subscribers since its January debut of Discovery+ and the company is “on pace” to hit 12 million SVOD subs by the end of February. “We are off to a promising start in 2021 with the successful launch of discovery+,” CEO David Zaslav said in a statement.

Discovery’s Q4 revenue was flat with the same quarter in 2019. U.S. ad sales were also flat as distribution revenues rose 5% — the latter despite cord-cutting at the linear cable channels. Internationally, both figures were down a bit. The company reported earnings of 76 cents per share and revenue of $2.889 billion, vs. Street projections for per-share earnings of 72 cents on revenue of $2.83 billion.

During Q4, Discovery officially entered the streaming wars with the announced launch of a standalone streaming service of its own, Discovery Plus, which debuted for $4.99 to $6.99 a month. Execs expect the service to have an addressable market of 70 million domestically and 400 million globally. Shares of Discovery were trading at a new 52-week high going into its earnings report, with the stock up around 66% year to date.

Discovery’s platform has “the largest-ever content offering of any new streaming service” at launch, per Discovery, including more than 50 original titles and over 150 hours of exclusive content.” The streamer debuted during the company’s current fiscal Q1 with over 50 original programs and a library of over 55,000 previously aired episodes in its library from Discovery-owned channels such as HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Animal Planet, and others.