HBO Max, Paramount+ Set to Merge – Here’s What We Know

As we assumed would happen when Paramount won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max and Paramount+ will merge into one streaming service. This was confirmed on an investor call today with Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison.

“We do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” 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 DTC.”

We don’t yet know if HBO will remain a standalone tile in the combined streamer’s interface or if the library will be co-mingled with Paramount’s shows and movies.

Ellison said he doesn’t want to interfere too much in HBO’s process, but we’re skeptical he can stay out of the way.

“(HBO boss) Casey (Bloys) and his team do an absolutely 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. And our viewpoint is: HBO should stay HBO. And 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 stand-alone.”

But Ellison’s butterfingered approach to talent suggests he could send Bloys and the HBO hit-makers running for the hills. Ellison and his lieutenants annoyed their company’s most important creator, sending Taylor Sheridan into the arms of NBCUniversal/Peacock. Anderson Cooper fled “60 Minutes” rather than abide by the right-wing delusions of Ellison’s hand-picked saboteur, Bari Weiss.

Bloys’ contract is up next year, roughly around the time the acquisition should finalize. If we had to bet, he’ll jump ship. Given his track record with creators, he would be a huge asset luring talent wherever he goes.

We also haven’t heard Ellison share a plan for Discovery+. There may be some value to keeping an inexpensive reality show streamer as a standalone service, considering the possible price for the combined HBO Max-Paramount+.

Paramount could also choose to kill Discovery+ and absorb its library into the primary streaming service. It could also use some of the Discovery content to bulk up Pluto TV. Ellison has mentioned wanting to use Pluto as a kind of recruiting tool to get users to pay up for Paramount+, similar to how Prime Video offers some free content, while hiding other titles behind a paywall.

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