So remember when entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) decided it was going to change the name of its streaming service HBO Max, and turn it into just Max? Well, apparently, all the good reasons it had to do so at the time turned sour, as Warner is again pivoting back to HBO Max for its online streaming service. The indecisiveness did it few favors, and Warner stock was down modestly in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Essentially, the move is designed to reflect Warner’s efforts to no longer compete with Netflix (NFLX) in terms of sheer volume, and instead pull back to better quality material. Warner announced the change during its upfront presentation, which, as you know, has been especially big this year as media companies all throughout the spectrum have been almost savagely competing for advertiser dollars.
And indeed, streaming at Warner has already been on a turnaround trajectory: profitability is up somewhere around $3 billion over the last two years, reports note, and an extra 22 million subscribers have come in in the last year alone. By the end of 2026, Warner hopes to swell those ranks to roughly half of the United States’ population worldwide: over 150 million. Considering that Warner originally dropped the HBO part of the name because they believed it was too small an audience, bringing it back really does suggest a Warner that is actively paring back in favor of higher quality.
“Pillaging the IP to Sell Mayonnaise”
Disney (DIS) has made great strides with its Disney Vault, in which it deliberately keeps some content out of the fray to build interest in it. Now, Warner is apparently looking to do something similar with what it calls “WBD Storyverse.” Basically, it is a move to “recapture the magic of the original IP through a branded lens.”
We have apparently already seen some of this, as we saw Batman hawking State Farm insurance and a Wayfair (W) commercial featuring A Christmas Story. But this is not sitting well with all viewers, as one report likened the concept to “pillaging the IP to sell mayonnaise.”
Is WBD Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on WBD stock based on nine Buys and eight Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 11.95% rally in its share price over the past year, the average WBD price target of $12.47 per share implies 37.41% upside potential.
