WarnerMedia will be shutting down its TV channels HBO and WB in India starting December 15, 2020, as well as other South Asian countries.
HBO SD and HD channels will be discontinued in India and Pakistan while WB will be taken off TV screens in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives.
The media giant’s kids channels – Cartoon Network and POGO – will continue to air in the south Asian region.
The end of HBO and WB can be traced down to the rapid rise of OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which allow viewers to consume content when and where they prefer. The platforms taken up a huge part of the English content market in South Asia.
Siddharth Jain, senior vice-president and managing director for WarnerMedia’s entertainment networks in South Asia, said in a statement:
“After 20 years of successes for the HBO linear movie channel in south Asia and more than a decade with the WB linear movie channel, this was a difficult decision to make. The pay-TV industry landscape and the market dynamics have shifted dramatically, and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for further change.”
WarnerMedia launched its own OTT platform, HBO Max, earlier this year. It is yet to be made available for viewers outside the US but is expected to release in Asia soon.
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