HBO Max and Paramount+ will be combined into one streaming platform if Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery gains regulatory approval, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said during a Monday call with investors.
The combined streamer – which would merge the country’s fourth- and fifth-largest services – would boast about 200 million total subscribers according to current membership counts, Ellison added.
That would put the new service on par with Amazon Prime, currently the second-largest streamer with about 200 million subscribers, and below Netflix’s dominant 325 million customer tally.
David Ellison and his mega-billionaire pops Larry Ellison last week reached an agreement to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $31 a share after Netflix failed to hike its own offer and backed out of the brutal monthslong bidding war.
The new conglomerate will release 30 films each year with an exclusive 45-day theatrical release window, David Ellison said, adding that the company will have about $79 billion in debt and aims to cut $6 billion in costs – all but guaranteeing layoffs are on the way.
The deal – which would create a mammoth media empire including HBO, CNN, CBS and thousands of movie titles – still needs approvals from the US Department of Justice and European regulators.
Ellison did not share details on how much the new streaming service could cost consumers.
Paramount did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Media experts had expected Paramount Skydance to copy Disney’s approach, offering its streaming services as bundle deals or à la carte, in an effort to expand their share of the market – a more flexible approach that could ease regulatory scrutiny on the deal.
“I’m a bit surprised because I thought they’d keep the two things separate,” Derek Reisfield, a former media executive at CBS News and McKinsey who co-founded MarketWatch, told The Post.
“I think the move here is, ‘We’re going to have a better, broader service, and therefore we’ll be able to attract more subscribers, and eventually we’re going to be able to raise the price,’ but I don’t think they’ll jack up prices dramatically.”
Even the combined platform’s subscriber total is not a threat to streaming rivals like Netflix, Amazon and Disney, which also owns Hulu, so it likely won’t face antitrust problems, Reisfield said.
Ellison said the deal would not disrupt HBO’s history of quality shows and movies.
“HBO should stay HBO,” the exec told investors.
HBO – which is currently owned by WBD – is likely to become a sub-brand within a new, larger streaming service, a source familiar with Paramount’s plans told CNBC.
Paramount executives also nodded to the wide array of sports offerings in the proposed combined service, which would merge TNT Sports with CBS Sports – including rights to NCAA March Madness, NFL, MLB, NHL, Nascar and college football games, as well as tennis tournaments.
The company said it has not heard anything from regulators to suggest its sports media rights would face any antitrust concerns.
“It’s helpful to have those multiple channels or outlets if you’re bidding on sports packages, makes them a more competitive bidder,” Reisfield told The Post. “That obviously helps them in the competitive market play.”
Paramount Skydance could also potentially cross-promote its sports broadcasts on CBS and TNT, he said.
Ellison’s proposed merger would be just the latest change to HBO’s streaming service, which debuted in 2010 as HBO Go.
The company launched HBO Now four years later to give customers a way to access HBO programming without the cable bundle for the first time.
In 2020, two years after AT&T bought Time Warner and renamed it WarnerMedia, the company introduced HBO Max – which was briefly renamed to Max, a decision that was reversed last year.
