Feb 8 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery Inc plans to keep Discovery+ as a stand-alone streaming service in a strategy shift, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The decision to keep Discovery+ is part of an effort to avoid risking losing a significant chunk of the app's 20 million subscribers, according to the report.

The company, which was formed last year by the merger of AT&T Inc's WarnerMedia unit and Discovery Inc, said last year it has laid out a new strategy that will merge the HBO Max streaming service with Discovery+.

A company spokesman confirmed that Discovery+ will remain in the marketplace.

Warner Bros Discovery has reached deals with streaming services Roku Inc and Fox Corp's Tubi to license 2,000 hours of movies and TV series, as it becomes the latest media company to embrace free, ad-supported streaming TV, Reuters reported last month.

The company is also exploring a sale of its music library that could be valued at more than $1 billion, according to a report from the Financial Times last month. (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru)