Paramount Skydance plans to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service once Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery complete their merger.
But Paramount will want the HBO brand to “operate independently.”
“As I said, we do have plans to combine the two services, which will now bring us to just over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said Monday on an investor call detailing the merger plan. “We think this puts us in a position to compete with the leaders in this space. At Paramount, we expect to complete the integration of our three services under one integrated stack by the middle of this year, and you can see us taking a similar approach to this platform going forward. And given the amount of content and what we can do technologically, we think our combined services will really put us in a position to compete with the largest companies in DTC.”
According to the conference call, it wasn’t immediately clear what the new integrated streamer setup would look like or whether HBO Max would be available as a tile within the service or fully integrated. However, Ellison revealed that Paramount management wants to give HBO, currently run by Casey Bloys, special treatment to continue developing content and producing programming without strict oversight from Paramount executives.
“Casey and his team are definitely doing a great job at HBO,” Ellison told analysts on the phone, noting that “Game of Thrones” is his favorite HBO series. “And, like we said, we plan to be able to operate with independence and, frankly, allow HBO to do incredibly well. Our perspective is that HBO should continue to be HBO. They’re leaders in this space, and we want them to continue to do that. But by combining our platforms, all of our content can reach an even wider audience than we could alone.”
In December, Netflix outbid Paramount and won a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming businesses for $27.75 per share. Last week, Paramount relented with an offer to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its struggling cable business, increasing its offer from $30 per share to $31 per share. WBD’s board accepted this as an “excellent offer,” and Netflix declined to increase its bid, paving the way for the Paramount-WBD merger to be officially announced on Friday.
