One of Warner Bros.’s earliest coups of the TV age was acquiring the Hanna-Barbera library of animated programming. With it, they own stuff like Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, Jonny Quest, et al. Cable network Cartoon Network began as a joint venture between Warner and Turner as a place to showcase classic animated programming. Once it started making its own new programming, and acquiring newer shows, it spun out Boomerang, a channel specifically for those older ‘toons. Eventually Boomerang launched a separate streaming service, but, as seemed inevitable, WB Discovery is sunsetting Boomerang and will absorb it into Max. Some of it, anyway.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Boomerang streaming service will cease operation on September 30 of this year. Subscribers and “some content” will be moved over to ad-free Max with no immediate change to subscriber price. That is, at least, a bargain. Boomerang is $6 per month while Max’s ad-free tier is currently $17 per month. Max already carries some of Boomerang’s content, including Looney Tunes shorts, Scooby-Doo series, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, etc. What else will come over is unclear at this time.
The Boomerang cable and satellite channel will continue to operate, because packages need channels. However this speaks to yet another way Warner Bros. Discovery under David Zaslav continues to consolidate all of its holdings into a single entity. Last month, WBD announced it would join with Disney+ and Hulu for a massive streaming bundle. Surely keeping as much in the Max portfolio as possible makes their end of the deal look more enticing. And I’m not going to say Boomerang was the best service out there. I tried it for a while and it was fairly pedestrian. But more and more, streaming, once the wild west of choice, is turning into mega corporations trying to increase their bottom line.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.