HBO Max is set to experience huge changes following Paramount‘s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
What major changes will happen at HBO Max following the Paramount purchase?
Paramount’s deal for Warner Bros. Discovery will lead to significant changes in the streaming service ecosystem if approved. During an investor call on Monday, Paramount CEO David Ellison announced that HBO Max and Paramount+ will eventually merge into one streaming service.
“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,” Ellison said on the call via Variety. “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.”
Ellison did not provide details on the logistics of the merger, including whether HBO Max will be located as a separate tile on Paramount+. This setup would be similar to how Hulu appears on Disney+.
However, Ellison plans for HBO to “operate with independence” after the Paramount merger. Ellison’s comments suggest that Casey Bloys and his team will continue running HBO with “independence.”
“Casey and his team do absolutely a 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,” Ellison said. “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.”
In December, Netflix won the bidding war to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business. However, Paramount increased its WBD offer last week from $30 per share to $31 per share. WBD accepted Paramount’s superior offer and gave Netflix four days to match. Ultimately, Netflix declined and opted out of the deal. The outcome clears the way for Paramount to buy WBD and merge the two companies.
