Paramount CEO David Ellison announced on a Monday investor conference call that Paramount+ and HBO Max would merge into a single streaming service, contingent on regulatory approval of Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
A combined service would have about 200 million subscribers given existing totals, Ellison said during his company’s investor call about the WBD transaction. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery said last week they had struck an agreement to sell WBD for $31 per share after Netflix backed out of the prolonged bidding war.
Paramount executives didn’t offer any details Monday on how the company may price a combined service or what it would be called. Still, Ellison said he wouldn’t disrupt the HBO brand.
“HBO should stay HBO,” he said, citing its long history of quality programming.
HBO is likely to be a sub-brand within the larger service, according to a person familiar with Paramount’s plans.
MacDailyNews Take: HBO’s streaming services have had more name changes than Taylor Swift’s little black book, so what’s one more?
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