Streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+ will be combined after the WBD deal

Paramount+ and HBO Max will be combined into one streaming service if regulators approve Paramount Skydance acquisition warner Bros Discovery, Paramount CEO David Ellison said on a conference call Monday.

The combined service will have about 200 million subscribers given the current total, Ellison said during his company’s investor call about the WBD deal. Paramount and Warner Bros. said: Discovery last week said they had reached an agreement to sell WBD for $31 per share after Netflix pulled out of a long bidding war.

Paramount executives did not provide any details Monday about how the company will price the syndicated service or what it will be called. However, Ellison said he would not disrupt the HBO brand.

“HBO should stay on HBO,” he said, citing its long history of high-quality programming.

HBO will likely be a sub-brand within the larger service, according to a person familiar with Paramount’s plans. Another person said HBO is currently run by Casey Bloys, whose contract expires in 2027. Bloys declined to comment.

Paramount also touted the strength of its sports offerings on the syndicated service, which combines TNT Sports and CBS Sports.

Paramount executives said they haven’t heard anything from regulators to suggest that the breadth of their sports offerings — which will include March Madness, NFL, MLB, NHL, Nascar, French Open, The Masters, college football and more — would raise any antitrust concerns.

HBO has been included in a variety of streaming services under different names in recent years.

Time Warner originally launched HBO as a streaming option in 2010, under the name HBO Go. Four years later, HBO also launched HBO Now, giving users a way to access HBO outside of their cable package for the first time.

after AT&T It was acquired by Time Warner in 2018, renamed it WarnerMedia, and executives launched HBO Max in 2020 in an effort to add more subscribers.

Three years later, after AT&T divested WarnerMedia and merged it with Discovery, Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav brought it back. Discovery, Max service label to display the addition of Discovery programming to the service.

That decision was reversed last year, when Zaslav and Ploys decided to return to the HBO Max name to highlight the strength of HBO’s programming.