Paramount Plans HBO Max–Paramount+ Merger After Warner Bros. Deal

With Paramount emerging victorious after a hostile takeover bid to wrestle Warner Bros. Discovery from Netflix, we're learning more about what the company plans to do with certain Warner Bros. assets after a recent CNBC report. 

HBO Max and Paramount+ to Merge

According to CNBC, on Monday, Paramount CEO David Ellison said that, assuming all goes well with the merger, the plan is to combine HBO Max and Paramount+, the streaming services of both companies, into one. 

Given existing totals, this would account for about 200 million total subscribers. 

Paramount+ is home to shows like Landman, School Spirits, Dexter, Yellowjackets, and more. Meanwhile, HBO Max houses The Pitt, The White Lotus, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, and more. 

While nothing was revealed concerning pricing, Ellison assured those on the call that the HBO service wouldn't be disrupted. 

“HBO should stay HBO,” Ellison said. 

That said, CNBC spoke with "someone familiar with Paramount's plans" and said that it'll likely be a sub-service within a larger service. Right now, HBO is headed up by Casey Bloys, whose contract expires in 2027. CNBC reached out for comment, but didn't get a response.

Additionally, Paramount discussed the idea of bringing together TNT Sports and CBS Sports to combine their offerings. 

As of now, Paramount executives have not indicated that the combined sports offerings, which CNBC notes include March Madness, NFL, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, the French Open, The Masters, college football, and more, would raise any antitrust issues. 

HBO and Streaming Over the Years

HBO originally launched in 1972, and in the streaming era, it's gone through a few different looks and feels. 

The first streaming iteration came in 2010 with HBO Go. Then, in 2015, HBO Now launched, which gave people a way to access HBO without a cable bundle. 

In 2018, AT&T acquired Time Warner and renamed it to WarnerMedia. In 2020, executives launched HBO Max to add more subscribers. 

Then, three years after that, AT&T divested WarnerMedia, merged it with Discovery, and David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, renamed it to simply Max. 

However, last year, they reversed the decision, and it's now renamed HBO Max.

So, for a full recap, here were the names over the years: HBO Go, HBO Now, HBO Max, Max, HBO Max. 

Should the merger proceed, it wouldn't be surprising to see something like different tiers, with HBO Max as a perk of an upgraded package.