HBO Max and Paramount Plus will merge into a single streamer under Skydance

HBO Max and Paramount Plus will become one streaming service under Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. In a press release announcing the completion of the deal, Skydance — the name of the combined companies — says both streamers will “unify into a single service over time. ” Skydance CEO David Ellison hinted at this possibility in March, saying during a call with investors that merging Paramount Plus and HBO Max would give the combined companies “a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers. ” There are still no details about the timing of this change, or the name of the merged streamers, which HBO CEO Casey Bloys will oversee . Merging the two streamers could help them compete with Netflix, which last reported having 325 million subscribers in January