HBO Max and Paramount+ will have the same owner on Tuesday, October 6, when Paramount's $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is set to close. What happens to the two apps is still undecided, and the latest signals from inside the company point to a bundle rather than one combined service.
Paramount CEO David Ellison revealed the merged company's new name on October 2 in his first post on X. It will be called Skydance, after his original film production company.
One App Was the Original Plan
Earlier this year, Ellison told investors that Paramount+ and HBO Max would be combined into one streaming service if regulators approved the deal, with about 200 million subscribers between them. He also promised not to disrupt the HBO brand, pointing to its long record of quality shows. Executives did not say what a combined service would cost or what it would be called.
HBO's Boss Points to a Bundle
Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max content, is expected to run the combined streaming business. Asked on October 1 whether the two services would be bundled or fully merged, he would not say what is going to happen, but he pointed to the HBO Max and Disney bundle as a big success and said something like that would make a lot of sense.
Ellison's name reveal kept both apps in the picture too. His video ended on a slide of the company's key brands, Paramount, Warner Bros., DC, CBS, CNN and Nickelodeon, with HBO Max and Paramount+ shown as two separate logos.
What It Means for Your Subscriptions
No change has been announced for either app yet. Skydance has not named a merged service, set a bundle price or given a timeline.
Fans are split on what comes next. One Reddit user wrote "So long HBO. It was a fun run," while another pointed out that HBO Max has been passed between owners year after year.
The deal itself took more than a year. Warner Bros. Discovery's board turned Ellison down eight times before he outbid Netflix in February with $31 a share. Twelve state attorneys general sued to stop the merger, settled with Paramount on September 21, and a judge approved that settlement on September 30, clearing the way for the October 6 close.
The paperwork is finished on Tuesday. The question subscribers care about, one app or two in a bundle, is still waiting on Skydance.
Photo: Todd Dwyer via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
