One of the best streaming services going today, HBO Max, is about to merge with one of the worst, and there is no telling how it will affect either of the services. The upcoming merger of Warner Bros-Discovery and Paramount Skydance will shake up the industry, and many fans are worried about the fallout from this venture. There are concerns from DCU fans who are scared that the right-leaning Skydance will fire James Gunn to stop his vision of DC Comics in its tracks. There are also concerns about what will happen to the company’s television networks and the biggest property in the merger, the prestige network HBO.
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Paramount CEO David Ellison held an investor call on Monday, and he outlined what people can expect from the merger. He then revealed that HBO Max and Paramount+ would merge after the deal goes through. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ellison said that Paramount will have consolidated Paramount+, FAST platform Pluto TV, and BET+ as one service. “You can see us taking a similar approach to [HBO Max] going forward,” Ellison said. “We think the combined offering, 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.”
What Will Happen to HBO After the Merger?
This makes sense because it seems that David Ellison wants to compete with Netflix and Prime Video when it comes to what the Paramount streaming service offers. To date, Paramount+ has lots of network television shows and kids series, but by gaining Warner Bros. movies and shows from HBO, as well as sports from TBS and TNT, including AEW Wrestling, Paramount+ could become a monster streamer alongside Netflix. Ellison said that there are over 200 million subscribers between Paramount+ and HBO Max.
The good news came later in the call when he said that he wouldn’t change HBO at all. “Casey[Bloys] and his team do absolutely a remarkable job at HBO,” Ellison 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.”
That is the best news since HBO remains one of the most prestigious networks on television, and they have held that spot for almost three decades now. With shows like Euphoria, The Pitt, and the series in the Game of Thrones world, there is a lot of value here for Paramount to take in. Add this to the news that Paramount promises to keep movies with fair theatrical release windows to ensure successful theatrical runs, and it seems that David Ellison and Paramount are saying all the right things.
None of this will happen anytime soon. While Netflix has backed out and taken a nice $2.8 billion payoff from Paramount to break its original deal, Paramount still has to get past some regulatory hurdles standing in the way. While Ellision said they will merge HBO Max and Paramount+, this won’t happen until sometime in 2027 at the earliest, and that is when fans learn whether the quality of HBO Max remains high, or if it falls to the levels of Paramount+, which would be a massive disappointment.
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