Key Points
- Paramount plans to combine Paramount Plus and HBO Max following its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, creating a service with about 200 million subscribers.
- CEO David Ellison indicated Paramount Plus’ technology could power the unified platform, with HBO Max content folded into a single streaming stack.
- The strategy follows Paramount’s $31-per-share bid for WBD and aims to streamline operations and strengthen its competitive position in streaming.
Paramount intends to merge its streaming service Paramount Plus with that of HBO Max once its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is complete, the company’s CEO told investors and reporters on a conference call Monday.
The combined streaming platform will service around 200 million global subscribers based on the current count of both separate services, Paramount CEO David Ellison affirmed.
Ellison did not say which platform will absorb the other, though a story published by Bloomberg in October said he wanted the underlying technology powering Paramount Plus to serve as the cornerstone of the company’s direct-to-consumer streaming product if it was able to acquire WBD. That would mean the winding down of HBO Max and the integration of WBD’s content library into Paramount Plus, which has fewer global subscribers compared to HBO Max.
Paramount and WBD have growing streaming operations outside the United States, with both companies continuing to roll out their flagship services in more countries over time. Paramount also operates a joint venture with Comcast called SkyShowtime, which offers the Paramount and NBC Universal content libraries to streamers in some European countries where both companies lack a strong media presence.
John Oliver, after making a Paramount+ joke tonight: “Hey, what’re they gonna do? Take us over and immediately cancel us? I’m genuinely asking.” pic.twitter.com/IVlnVp06Zd
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) March 2, 2026
Last week, Paramount emerged as the winner of an unusual bidding war for WBD, which had accepted an earlier offer from Netflix to sell its film studio, intellectual property and HBO business. Paramount sweetened its deal in a way that WBD couldn’t ignore and Netflix refused to match, offering $31 per share for the entire company, including its cable networks business that consists of brands like CNN, TNT Sports and Cartoon Network.
There is already speculation about the type of synergy that deal will unlock, and whether workers at Paramount and WBD should prepare for pink slips. On the streaming side, Ellison has already made it clear that the company doesn’t need to continue operating multiple flagship services to reach consumers, with the strategy favoring a combination of forces.
“We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space,” Ellison said on Monday. “At Paramount, by the middle of this year, we’ll have completed the consolidation of our three services under one unified stack, and you can see us taking a similar approach to this platform going forward.”
The three services mentioned are ones that Paramount already owns and operates, including its free streamer Pluto TV, which operates on a similar but different tech foundation as Paramount Plus. Viacom, the company that preceded Paramount, acquired Pluto TV in 2019. Paramount Plus was relaunched from the streaming service CBS All Access about a year later.
Ellison wants the same tech synergy to benefit HBO Max, which will wind down as a standalone service on the tech side but remain its own separate product. It wasn’t clear how much consumers will pay for HBO Max once the merger is complete.
Currently, HBO Max costs $10 per month for an ad-supported version of the service and around $18 per month for commercial-free access to its TV shows and movies. Paramount Plus undercuts HBO Max by $1 on the ad-supported tier and nearly $5 on the ad-free plan. Both services also offer long-term, annual pricing plans at different costs.
