Subscribers to the company’s flagship streaming service, Max, watch HBO content, studio movies and older Warner Bros. series — and little else.

Four years ago, David Zaslav clinched a debt-heavy deal to merge cable mainstay Discovery Inc. — which he’d run since 2006 — with what was then called WarnerMedia. The story he told investors was that the two entities’ diverse array of media assets “are better and more valuable together.” He doesn’t believe that anymore.

Warner Bros. Discovery will split into two public companies by next year, carving off cable operations from its streaming service.