HBO, Warner Bros movie channels to discontinue in India, Pakistan from December

WarnerMedia announced today to discontinue HBO in India and Pakistan. 

The company will also discontinue the Warner Bros., movie channel in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Maldives from December 15.

According to recent reports, Siddharth Jain, SVP and MD, Warner Media South Asia, said that it was a difficult decision to make after 20 years of successfully running the HBO linear movie channel in South Asia and more than 10 years running the WB linear movie channel.

What has put an added pressure is the need for changes in the times of COVID-19 pandemic fuelled by changes in pay-TV industry landscape and market dynamics.

WarnerMedia will, however, continue running the Cartoon Network and Pogo in South Asia. It will, however, retain employees based in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru to handle its kids' channel operations, sales, and marketing, and also the distribution of CNN International.