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Game of Thrones and Star Trek all under one roof? Get ready for HBO Max and Paramount+ to combine into a single streaming service, bringing all their TV and movie properties together.
Paramount Skydance announced the plan as the company prepares to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a $110 billion mega-merger. "To enhance competition and to deliver viewers a truly compelling offering, we will combine the streaming portfolios of the two companies into one strong platform over the coming years,” Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said in an investor presentation on Monday.
(Credit: Paramount Skydance)Ellison didn't reveal an exact date for the transition or discuss pricing. The merger itself is still pending, but is expected to close in Q3, barring any regulatory pushback.
In the meantime, Ellison said he expects the combined streaming service will be more appealing to consumers and advertisers. "As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” he said during the Q&A session. He pointed out that Warner Bros. franchises, including Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and the DC Comics universe, will be offered alongside other hit properties such as Paramount’s Mission: Impossible, Transformers, and SpongeBob SquarePants.
“The unified platform will offer advertisers more compelling and impactful opportunities, including marquee US and international sports leagues and events like the NFL, UFC, and internationally, the home of the Olympics,” he added.
(Credit: Paramount Skydance)In addition, the company’s presentation mentioned “consolidating streaming technology stacks,” which involves unifying them around one cloud provider. Paramount+ currently uses Google Cloud, while HBO Max is on Amazon’s AWS.
Rival Netflix originally sought to acquire Warner Bros., but the company refused to increase its offer and dropped its bid last week, paving the way for Paramount Skydance to snatch up the major media company for $110 billion.
Despite the plan to merge the streaming platforms, Ellison noted he wants HBO to operate as an independent team. “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,” he said.
Perhaps to address antitrust concerns, Ellison said his company will continue licensing TV content to other platforms, and let third-party producers use its studios. Ellison also said he has no plans to cut funding for movie and TV production.