Discovery has confirmed that it will combine the discovery+ and HBO Max streaming services at some point later this year.

The two streamers will be under the same roof when Discovery and WarnerMedia merge next month to form a new company called Warner Bros. Discovery.

Speculation has been rife about the future of the streaming services, with most analysts predicting that the two could be maintained as separate entities and bundled together for a single subscription price, but now Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels has said that they will eventually operate as a single, merged service.

"We believe that the breadth and depth of this content offering is going to be a phenomenal consumer value proposition," he told a media conference.

"The question is, in order to get to that point and do it in a way that's actually a great user experience for our subscribers, that's going to take some time.

"Again, that's nothing that's going to happen in weeks - hopefully not in years, but in several months - and we will start working on an interim solution in the meantime.

"So right out of the gate, we're working on getting the bundling approach ready, maybe a single sign-on, maybe ingesting content into the other product, etc., so that we can start to get some benefits early on.

"But the main thrust is going to be harmonising the technology platform. Building one very, very strong combined direct-to-consumer product and platform, that's going to take a while."

In the UK HBO Max has yet to launch due to HBO's content exclusivity deal with Sky, and it is currently unknown what will happen in the UK market once discovery+ and HBO Max merge.