Paramount Skydance will complete its acquisition of Warner Bros. next week, and CEO David Ellison just revealed ‘Skydance’ as the new company name ahead of a planned merging of HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming services.
‘Skydance’ is name of merged Paramount-Warner Bros. company, and likely name of merged streaming service too
Warner Bros. Discovery is officially set to be merged with Paramount Skydance next Tuesday, October 6.
Following a lengthy approval process and recent settlement, and after beating out Netflix’s initial deal for WBD, the owner of Paramount+ will merge with the owner of HBO Max.
And the new name for this merged company? Skydance.
CEO David Ellison just joined X and made the name announcement in his first post.
Earlier this year, when asked about plans for HBO Max and Paramount+ if the merger went through, Ellison said the streamers would be combined into a single service. Per CNBC:
Paramount+ and HBO Max will be combined into one streaming service if regulators approve Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount CEO David Ellison said on a conference call Monday. 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 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.
Now that Skydance is the official name for the merged company, there’s a very good chance it will become the name of the new, combined streaming service too.
There’s been no timeline communicated yet for HBO Max and Paramount+ to merge, but we may get those details next week after the merger closes.
What do you think of the Skydance name? Will you be glad to see the streaming services merge, or do you think they should be kept separate? Let us know in the comments.
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