Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming & Studios

1923–1979

Warner Bros., Turner Broadcasting System, Scripps Networks Interactive and Discovery, Inc. have conjoined histories. Warner Bros. was founded on April 4, 1923, by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner. The company established itself as a leader in the American film industry^[4] before diversifying into animation, television, and video games and is one of the "Big Five" American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). In 1965, Turner Broadcasting System was founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia. A year later, Kinney National Company came into existence and it reincorporated as Warner Communications in 1972 before merging with Time Inc. in 1990 to become Time Warner. During its time as Warner Communications, the company made a number of further acquisitions.^[5][6]

1979–1996

In 1979, Warner Communications formed a joint venture with credit card company American Express called Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. American Express acquired a 50% stake in Warner Communications' cable television holdings for $175 million.^[7][8] This company owned such cable channels as MTV, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel, and VH1 (which was launched in 1985 on the channel space left by Turner's Cable Music Channel). Warner Communications bought out American Express's half in 1984 and sold the venture a year later to the original iteration of Viacom, which renamed it MTV Networks (now known as Paramount Media Networks).^[9] In 1982, Warner Communications purchased Popular Library from CBS Publications. Meanwhile, in the same year, Cable Education Network was founded, launching The Discovery Channel three years later and was renamed to Discovery Communications in 1994.

1996–2021

Time Warner, then known as Time Warner Entertainment, acquired the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996, allowing it to reenter the cable industry. In 2001, it merged with America Online (AOL) to form AOL Time Warner in 2001, but the merger proved disastrous, with the media company reverting to its former name, Time Warner, in 2003.^[10]

Time Warner spun off its cable division (later known as Spectrum owned by Charter Communications) AOL (now owned by Yahoo! Inc.) in 2009, and Time Inc. was spun out in 2013, which was later acquired by Meredith Corporation and is now known as Dotdash Meredith.^[11][12]

In 2018, Discovery Communications and AT&T acquired Scripps Networks Interactive (a 2008 spun off from E. W. Scripps Company's cable division)^[13] and Time Warner, and were renamed to Discovery, Inc. and WarnerMedia respectively. In 2019, AT&T, WarnerMedia's new parent company, integrated its assets into Warner's business divisions as part of its reorganization of its media assets, effectively breaking up the Turner Broadcasting System.^[14]

2022–2025

In 2021, Discovery, Inc. acquired WarnerMedia for $43 billion;^[2][3] the deal closed on April 8, 2022.^[15]

On May 11, 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery eliminated several executive positions carried over from WarnerMedia, including Kids, Young Adults and Classics head Tom Ascheim, and general manager of TBS, TNT, and TruTV head Brett Weitz. These networks would be overseen by Finch as head of U.S. Networks, while the studios under the Kids, Young Adults and Classics division (Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Williams Street) was moved under Warner Bros. Television.^[16][17][18] The same day, it announced an agreement with British telecom company BT Group for it to contribute its BT Sport channels into a 50/50 joint venture with its UK Eurosport channels, and eventually merge them.^[19][20] In August 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would dissolve the Warner Horizon Unscripted Television division by the end of that month, with any ongoing and development projects being in development primarily under Warner Bros. Television.