Goodbye to HBO Max? Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery reveal their plan following the merger with a new streaming platform

Although Paramount Skydance prevailed over Netflix in the battle to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and its extensive catalog of in-house productions, the deal itself has yet to be formally closed. Both conglomerates are already rubbing their hands together and have announced the first significant changes resulting from the merger, including the combination of their streaming platforms—Paramount+ and HBO Max—into a single service, as well as the theatrical release windows for films already scheduled on the calendar.

Paramount and Warner Bros. give clues about the future of HBO Max: expanded catalog, release windows, and more

Paramount and Warner Bros. have already revealed the first details of their joint plan following their merger, as reported by Variety. One of the first significant measures will be the combination of HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single streaming service, although it is not yet known what the rebranding will be—if any—or the name of the new platform. David Ellison, CEO of Paramount, commented in a call to investors that the new combined product would reach 200 million subscribers. This is still lower than Netflix’s estimated 325 million, but it will compete head-to-head with Amazon Prime Video, which has another 200 million.

Ellison also announced that the consolidation of joint services under the new unified umbrella will be completed by the middle of this year, so although the merger agreement is still being formalized through legal channels, the media and film machinery has already begun to take its first steps. However, the Paramount CEO assures that HBO will continue to receive special treatment in terms of the development of its original programming—with explicit mention of Game of Thrones—without interference from his company’s executives.

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For its part, the LA Times reports that David Ellison and David Zaslav want to maintain a 45-day window for theatrical releases followed by digital and streaming formats, exactly the same as Ted Sarandos (Netflix) had already announced if his platform managed to offer the highest final bid to Warner Bros. There has also been talk of the monumental operating cost of the transaction: the merged company will have a debt of $79 billion and is expected to make cuts valued at $6 billion, so numerous layoffs are to be expected due to “redundancies” for duplicate positions.

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