streaming service to have an addressable market in the U.S. of at least 70 million homes — and at least 400 million households globally.
“All of a sudden, with this product, we’re able to address a much, much larger global community here,” he said. Discovery CEO David Zaslav acknowledged that the company isn’t sure to extent to which Discovery Plus might cannibalize its pay-TV business. Asked about the potential for cannibalization, “we’ll see, but people love our channels… We’ve never been stronger to the cable bundle,” he said, claiming that Discovery’s networks are “effectively like the NFL times five right now for women.”
In 2020, Discovery’s direct-to-consumer services will generate $800 million of revenue with losses from the investments in the streaming initiatives in the $500 million range, according to Wiedenfels. For 2021, the company expects to incur an additional $200 million-$300 million hit to earnings with the investment in Discovery Plus. He declined to provide a top-line forecast but said Discovery expects “significant” revenue growth for 2021.