The newly merged media company plans to ‘unify’ its new streaming businesses.
Skydance, the new media entity made from Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, is also going to merge its streaming apps. The company shared its intentions in the same announcement that confirmed the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. was complete, a nearly year’s long process that was briefly blocked by a multi-state lawsuit until Paramount reached a settlement in late September.
While Skydance didn’t get into specifics, it did share that its streaming services, which now include HBO Max, Paramount+ and Discovery+, “will unify into a single service over time.” Plans to combine the streaming services have been on the table for a while. In March, Variety reported Skydance CEO David Ellison intended to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single entity, giving the company “a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers.” Ellison also stressed that HBO would continue to “operate with independence” after the merger. Based on Skydance’s recent appointment of HBO CEO Casey Bloys to Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer of Skydance DTC, the company is hoping some of that prestige HBO quality can rub off on its other programming.
Reducing redundancies and combining catalogues of content is what all entertainment companies do after merging. HBO Max is a recent example: Since it launched as Max in 2023, the service has offered Discovery’s catalog of reality TV and documentary programming alongside WarnerMedia’s collection of movies and TV series.
That same merger process typically results in some negative outcomes too, like layoffs — which Skydance has already warned employees about — and higher prices. Skydance hasn’t announced the name of its unified streaming service, let alone what it’ll cost, but given the exorbitant amount of debt the company took on as part of the merger, there’s a good chance it could be higher than what customers paid before.
