WBD Shutting Down MotorTrend+ Subscription Service, Moving Its Content To Discovery+ & Max
In the latest sign of difficulty for niche streaming, Warner Bros. Discovery is shifting programming from its MotorTrend+ streaming service onto Max and Discovery+ and will shut down the auto enthusiast subscription offering.
The programming changes take effect today, with 1,000 hours of MotorTrend programming moving to Discovery+ in the U.S. and Canada and Max in the U.S. Thousands of additional hours will be “continually added” to the larger company streamers through the end of March, according to an official announcement, at which point MotorTrend+ will cease to operate. News, reviews and shopping tools from the digital outlet will be available for free on various mobile apps and websites, the company said.
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The majority of current MotorTrend+ subscribers paying $6 a month will be migrated to the ad-free tier of Discovery+, which costs the same amount, by the end of March. In addition to MotorTrend fare, Discovery+ has tens of thousands of hours from Magnolia, OWN, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID and other sources.
MotorTrend shows making the transition to Max and Discovery+ include Top Gear America, Bitchin’ Rides, Roadkill, Texas Metal and Kevin Hart’s Muscle Car Crew.
The moves come during the 75th anniversary year for MotorTrend. The longtime auto industry authority’s parent company, The Enthusiast Network (TEN), formed a joint venture in 2017 with Discovery cable network Velocity, which then rebranded as MotorTrend TV. Under the JV, Discovery took a majority stake in TEN, including its magazine and digital operations. As the JV embarked on a strategy to jump into the burgeoning subscription streaming arena, Discovery was in the midst of launching a host of niche streaming outlets focused on cooking and sports like cycling and golf. Discovery+, a broader offering, would reach the market in 2020.
Apart from Sony’s anime service Crunchyroll and AMC Networks-owned services like Shudder and AMC+, few niche-audience streaming outlets have managed to grow into going concerns. As companies look to save money and become more efficient, sub-scale services are being consolidated or unplugged altogether. Even a wide-audience outlet like Discovery+ has faced significant challenges. Four years in, it is in the neighborhood of 20 million subscribers, according to recent press reports. Officially, its numbers have been pooled with those of Max and other streaming outlets since the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery closed in April 2022.
In a sweeping rebrand last year of HBO Max as Max, which involved onboarding large amounts of Discovery+ programming, WBD decided to keep Discovery+ available as a stand-alone. CEO David Zaslav subbed up the strategic rationale as, “leave no sub behind.” Yet its future as a separate entity does not seem assured, based on industry and viewership trends.
The news about MotorTrend came on the same day WBD reported fourth-quarter earnings. A 14% year-to-year slide in advertising revenue and a lack of guidance on EBITDA in future quarters were among factors rattling investors, as company shares slid 10% for the day.
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