As the media conglomerate looks to recalibrate its streaming priorities, it will no longer produce originals for HBO Max in the Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland), Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey, and will also remove some content from its platform in order to free up licensing deals elsewhere. In a statement shared with Variety, a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery said: “As we continue to work to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a global streaming service that showcases the breadth of content across Warner Bros. Discovery, we look at the current content proposition for existing services. As part of this process, we have decided to remove a limited amount of original programming from HBO Max, as well as cease our original programming efforts for HBO Max in the Nordics and Central Europe. We also stopped our development activities in the newer regions of the Netherlands and Turkey, which had started last year. “Our commitment to these markets has not changed,” the statement continued. “We will continue to commission local content for Warner Bros. linear networks. Discovery in these territories, and we remain a substantial buyer of local third-party content for use in our streaming services.” The news, which was shared with staff and production partners on Monday morning, will be a huge blow to the local theater community as well as the venerable HBO Max Europe team, which just months ago put together the slate of her wishes for Europe’s scenario. producers as part of a high-demand meeting at the Series Mania drama festival in late March. Some of the streaming service’s most lauded international shows to date, like the Swedish sex comedy “Lust” and the Danish family drama “Kamikaze,” hail from the Scandinavians. While initial development will cease immediately in the aforementioned areas, programs already in production will continue, and it is understood that some yet-to-be-announced greenlights will also move forward. However, some of those shows may be sold to other platforms – a move that gives WBD more licensing opportunities elsewhere. As part of the restructuring, some European originals and some US shows are also being pulled from HBO Max worldwide. Hungarian drama “The Informant” as well as “Lust” and “Kamikaze” will be removed from the service. Two regions spared from the overhaul are Spain and France, where the originals will not be affected. That’s likely because Spanish-language content travels well for HBO Max, which has a large footprint in Latin America and also serves the US Spanish-speaking market. Meanwhile, while HBO Max has yet to launch in France, strict French content quotas for streamers under Europe’s game-changing Audiovisual Media Services Directive mean a strong French slate is unlikely to be a thing which Warner Bros. Discovery can afford to lose. After Monday’s shock restructuring of the prototypes, redundancies are likely at all European businesses, although specific details are still unknown. The news will no doubt have huge resonance across Europe, where the production sector – despite the occasional royalties grumble – has embraced the new commissioning opportunities heralded by new stream entrants. The HBO team, in particular, has earned the respect of local producers given its long tenure expanding European originals for the legacy brand. HBO Max in EMEA is led by Antony Root, executive vice president and head of original production at WarnerMedia EMEA. His team includes Johnathan Young, vice president and editor-in-chief of original production for Central Europe. Miguel Salvat, who has the same role in Spain. Christian Wikander for the Scandinavians. and Vera Peltekian for France. Priya Dogra, who is based in London and recently established her leadership team, is president and CEO for EMEA excluding Poland. JB Perrette is CEO and president of global streaming and interactive, while Gerhard Zeiler is president of international. Variety understands that similar decision-making for HBO Max is currently taking place across the streamer’s territories, which span the US, Latin America and parts of Europe. The rationale behind the planning axis is both strategic and financial. Overall, the company wants to create a smarter window for Discovery+ and HBO Max content before integrating the services into one offering. It’s also likely that WBD will look to leverage its IP across many different global platforms and divisions of the company rather than exclusively through its streaming operation. What’s more, the move comes as Wall Street takes a closer look at the streaming landscape after Netflix’s subscriber decline last quarter and its stunning share price decline. As Variety reported last month, WBD’s share price has been steadily declining since the combined entity began trading on April 11 following the close of the Discovery deal for WarnerMedia. WBD’s current market cap is about $34.29 billion, but the company has a debt load of about $55 billion. Analysts in June cited a need for more “clarity” on the media group’s direct-to-consumer strategy, with analysts at JP Morgan noting: “WBD has the assets and potential cost savings to reinvest in DTC, but we are cautious about the company’s ability to grow overall on the other side of synergies.” WBD earlier this year announced a plan to save $3 billion in costs within the first 24 months of closing the deal. Much of that, CEO David Zaslav warned, will come from “disinvestment,” which reflects the restructuring of European prototypes.
