Paramount Skydance plans to merge Paramount+ and HBO Max platforms

Paramount Skydance plans to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service after it officially takes over Warner Bros. Discovery, the company’s top executive announced Monday.

“We do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said during an investor call early Monday.

“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 the direct-to-consumer streaming market, Ellison added.

Paramount+ is home to the “Star Trek” franchise and “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan’s popular television shows. HBO Max is the destination for “Game of Thrones,” the Batman saga and recent hits like “Sinners.”

The call came three days after WBD formally signed an agreement to be acquired in a blockbuster deal by Paramount Skydance. The deal was inked after Netflix abruptly pulled out of the bidding war for WBD’s studio and streaming assets, closing the curtains on a corporate battle that had riveted Hollywood and beyond.

Paramount Skydance’s offer of $31 a share values WBD at roughly $77 billion. The takeover bid, factoring in WBD’s debt load, comes to a total of more than $110 billion.

If the Paramount-WBD merger is approved by regulators and shareholders, Ellison would take over a sprawling portfolio of assets that includes the Warner Bros. Pictures film studio, DC Entertainment, HBO and CNN. (Netflix’s bid did not include WBD’s cable channels.)

Ellison is no stranger to the regulatory approval process: Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global last year in a transaction valued at $8 billion, putting it in control of a movie studio, the CBS network and a trove of intellectual property. The deal catapulted him to the upper ranks of modern media moguls.

Monday’s investor call provided the public with an early glimpse at Ellison’s plans for WBD after the merger is complete.

He pledged to releasing 30 movies in theaters a year and vowed that HBO would continue to enjoy the resources and creative independence to “do what it does best.” HBO has long been considered one of the most prestigious brands in entertainment.

“HBO should stay HBO,” Ellison said.

Paramount Skydance executives also said they have no plans to spin off or divest the suite of WBD cable channels, which also includes TNT and TBS. NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, recently spun off cable assets such as CNBC and E! into a separate entity called Versant.

Ellison — the son of Silicon Valley titan Larry Ellison, a close ally of President Donald Trump — insisted the Paramount-WBD tie-up would “enable us to better compete in today’s rapidly evolving market place,” and lead to a “stronger Hollywood.”

The deal has been met with a mixed reaction in America’s movie and television capital, where rank-and-file employees have expressed fear about potential job cuts, a possible pullback in content spending and wider technological disruptions.