Warner Bros. Discovery has put a pause to the planned launch of its streaming service HBO Max in India due to cost-cutting measures at global level. The global entertainment giant is also working on the merger of its two streaming services Discovery+ and HBO Max in the existing markets.

Currently, there is no clarity around when the service will be launched in India, as per an Economic Times report.

Hence, Saugata Mukherjee, India content head, HBO Max has also quit the organistaion, who joined last year. The content team started working on a few projects as the initial plan was to launch the service within 1-2 years in India. 

At this moment, the only information available with the team is that it will not launch at least until the end of 2024, the report said citing a senior official.

As per a company spokesperson, HBO Max plans to launch a combined streaming service, including key Asia-Pacific territories in 2024.

A top producer who was working on a project for the upcoming streaming service has expressed discontent over the decision. He is of the view that it is a major miss for Indian content producers.

“It’s a tough industry and we were working hard for the last nine months. In our business, it’s a long time,” the producer said as quoted in the report

He also added that because some international OTT platforms including Netflix have not been able to crack the Indian market, it does not imply that India is not a good market to work in. It’s been unfortunate that their strategy changes every week, he commented.

To put things in perspective, the restructure that is happening in the Indian arm of HBO, has taken place globally as well. Following its parent company WarnerMedia’s recent merger with Discovery, HBO and HBO Max laid off 70 employees last week, that is 14% of its workforce. 

Moreover, Warner Bros. Discovery also shut down its CNN+ streaming service just one month after launch, costing the company $300 Mn. 

While the OTT platforms saw a stupendous growth during the last two years due to stay-at-home mandates, the growth has started plateauing as the world is gradually going back to normalcy. Even Netflix has lost subscribers for the first time in the decade, now looking to introduce an ad-supported model.

Till now, only 31% of India’s digital video audience is paying users, while the remaining 69% is advertising based video-on-demand (AVoD) audience, The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2022, said.