Posted in: Max, Movies, Opinion, Paramount+, TV, TV | Tagged: hbo max, paramount

ParaMax+? Paramount Skydance Combining HBO Max, Paramount+

Though he wants to maintain the HBO brand, David Ellison confirmed that Paramount+ and HBO Max will be combined into one streaming service.

From HBO Max to Max to HBO Max to… ParaMax+? We learned last week – after Netflix walked away with $2.8 billion, giving David Ellison's Paramount Skydance a clear path to paying a whole lot for Warner Bros. Discovery – that Paramount Skydance would be hosting an investor call this morning to start dropping details on the merger. This morning's conference call comes hours after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told Bloomberg in an interview that the Paramount/WBD deal would require cuts "in excess of $16 billion," and it sounds like we're learning one of the ways that number will be reached. Though looking to keep HBO as a brand that will "operate with independence," Ellison confirmed that Paramount+ and HBO Max will combine into one streaming service.

"As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers. We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space. At Paramount, by the middle of this year, we'll have completed the consolidation of our three services under one unified stack, and you can see us taking a similar approach to this platform going forward. And we think the combined offering, and given the amount of content and what we can do from the tech side, really will put us in a position to be able to compete with the most scaled players in DTC."

As for the brand that Warner Bros. Discovery's Casey Bloys has helped cultivate as being the home for prestige television, Ellison says that he wants Bloys and his team to "operate with independence, so that HBO can, candidly, do what it does incredibly well." During the investor call, Ellison noted, "Casey and his team do absolutely a remarkable job at HBO. And as we said, we do plan for that to be able to operate with independence, so that HBO can, candidly, do what it does incredibly well. Our viewpoint is, HBO should stay HBO. They built a phenomenal brand. They are a leader in the space, and we just want them to continue doing more of it. But by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone."

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