Competition for Netflix: Paramount+ and HBO Max could merge

Paramount+ and HBO Max are to be merged into a single streaming service following the impending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance. Paramount CEO David Ellison confirmed this plan on Monday at an investor conference. According to Ellison, such a merged streaming platform would serve over 200 million subscribers and become one of the biggest players in the streaming sector. “We believe that the combined offering, given the amount of content and our technical capabilities, will enable us to compete with the largest providers in the DTC space,” said Ellison. DTC stands for Direct to Consumer.

It is unclear whether the two libraries of Paramount+ and HBO Max will be fully integrated or whether one will remain as a standalone service within the other, writes the US tech portal Engadget. It is also unclear what the new, combined streaming service will cost. Subscription costs for most streaming services have increased in the past year.

Challenger for the dominant player Netflix

The streaming market is dominated by Netflix. The US company also wanted to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, but surprisingly withdrew from the bidding war last week. This cleared the way for Paramount Skydance after all. Previous takeover offers by Paramount had been rejected by Warner. According to Paramount, the merger will create a joint company with a net debt of around 79 billion US dollars, as the news agency Reuters reports. The acquisition still needs to be approved by antitrust authorities. Paramount CEO David Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison, has close ties to the Trump administration. According to some analysts, this could contribute to more favorable regulatory treatment, Reuters reports.

At the same time, fears have been raised that the Warner acquisition by Paramount, and thus by a Trump loyalist, further erodes the diversity of opinion in the US media. The focus here is particularly on the news channel CNN. Because of the merger, Paramount's channels CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, and BET will be combined with Warner's channels such as CNN, TNT, and Food Network. As Reuters notes, the merged group would have one of the most extensive collections of commercially successful intellectual property rights in the industry, including “Game of Thrones,” “Mission Impossible,” “Harry Potter,” or “Top Gun.” “By combining our linear businesses, we expect higher cash flow, more efficiency, and better management of market pressure,” said Ellison.

(akn)