Key Points
- Skydance plans to introduce a subscription bundle combining HBO Max and Paramount Plus in early 2027, following its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.
- Paramount Plus, HBO and HBO Max collectively account for 203 million subscriptions worldwide, although the figure does not account for customers subscribed to multiple services.
- Paramount Plus revenue increased 21 percent to $2.13 billion during the third quarter, while subscribers grew 6 percent to 82.2 million.
Skydance plans to launch a subscription bundle combining Paramount Plus and HBO Max in early 2027, offering the two streaming services together following its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) last month.
The announcement was made Monday following the release of Skydance’s third quarter (Q3) earnings results, the first such report since Skydance acquired WBD and merged its operations into Paramount in early October.
Since the merger, speculation about Skydance’s intentions with respect to its two former-competing streaming services was rampant; previously, Skydance CEO David Ellison said he wanted to see the two platforms combined, though it wasn’t clear if he intended to merge their technology or the consumer-facing platform itself.
That question was largely resolved when Paramount said it will sell a bundle that pairs Paramount Plus with HBO Max early next year. Pricing was not released, and it wasn’t clear if the bundle will be offered exclusively from Skydance or if the package will also be available through third-party marketplaces like Prime Video Channels, Roku Premium Subscriptions and YouTube Primetime Channels.
Skydance’s release showed continued growth in its streaming business, with Paramount Plus and HBO Max attracting more than 203 million global subscribers.
Paramount Plus generated $2.13 billion in revenue during the three months ending September 30, an increase of 21 percent from the same period last year. The streaming service added 600,000 subscribers during the quarter, ending September with 82.2 million paying customers, up 6 percent from a year earlier.
Skydance’s streaming business generated $2.5 billion in quarterly revenue, an increase of 11 percent. That income also includes earnings from Pluto TV, BET Plus and other Paramount legacy streaming businesses. When accounting for WBD as though the acquisition had been completed before the reporting period, combined direct-to-consumer revenue increased 15 percent compared with last year.
Skydance said Pluto TV reached approximately 75 million monthly active users and has largely completed its migration to the technology platform supporting Paramount Plus. During the quarter, the company began prompting Pluto TV streamers to create an account, an effort to retarget streamers and launch personalized advertising and other offerings against known consumers. Previously, Pluto TV allowed anyone to stream its shows without an account or subscription.
The migration from Pluto TV’s tech stack to one shared with Paramount Plus took nearly two years, executives said. The company expects to apply a similar approach to HBO Max, and hopes to accelerate that change based on information learned from the Pluto TV transition, executives said.
Starting in the fourth quarter, Skydance will no longer disclose quarterly streaming subscriber totals, following a similar shift previously adopted by Netflix and other companies.
