Likewise, I don't want to pay for Discovery+. I'm not old, but old enough to remember when Discovery wasn't trash.
Sure, there's plenty of TLC-style reality crap on there, but you might be surprised at some of the quality content that Discovery+ offers. There are the BBC nature docs and also some Science channel stuff. Some of the new D+ Originals are worthwhile docs or docuseries too.
Having had it free for a month awhile back, I probably won't even take up their offer to add it to HBO Max for an extra 99c/mo for up to 4 months. But if it got packaged into HBO Max, all ad-free, for an extra buck, I'd be happy with that.
The Great Rebundling is happening whether you want it or not. The economics of scale demand it. Disney+ will swallow Hulu and also end up with a bit of ESPN's most popular sports, such as Monday Night Football. And over the course of this decade, we're going to see *all* of the content on the various linear broadcast and cable channels become available at the same time inside their related direct-to-consumer apps.
By maybe 2026, buying The Max (or whatever they call HBO Max by then) will essentially just mean buying the entirety of WBD's TV content, you'll just be getting it directly from them rather than through a cable TV operator that commingles their content/channels along with content/channels from other companies too. Actually, by that point in time, it wouldn't surprise me if HBO reverts back to its roots and becomes an optional premium add-on to The Max's base tier. Imagine if today you could get the non-HBO part of HBO Max with ads for $5, then add the ad-free HBO content for an extra $5 (total of $10), then remove the ads from the non-HBO content for another $5 (total of $15).