March 2 (UPI) — Paramount will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service if the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery passes federal scrutiny, Paramount CEO David Ellison said Monday.
He made the announcement on an investor conference call, but he also said that Paramount wants HBO to operate with independence.
“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,” Variety reported Ellison said. “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 [direct-to-consumer content].”
The combined service would have about 200 million subscribers if existing totals stay, Ellison said. Paramount already owns HBO competitor Showtime, and HBO owns Cinemax.
Paramount didn’t give details on price or what the combined service would be called. It also didn’t say if the content would fully integrate into the service or be a tile within Paramount+.
But Ellison said Paramount will give HBO the autonomy to keep developing content with little intervention from Paramount. HBO Max is run by CEO Casey Bloys, whose contract runs out in 2027.
“Casey and his team do absolutely a remarkable job at HBO,” Ellison said. “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.”
After months of battling over Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix bowed out on Friday after WBD determined that Paramount’s $111 billion offer was superior. The merger must be approved by federal regulators.
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