Out of the frying pan but into the fire: That’s the scenario HBO Max is facing following Netflix’s sudden about-face in its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
With Paramount now primed to scoop up Warner Bros. and its various studio and streaming properties, all eyes are turned on what might eventually happen to the HBO Max and the iconic HBO brand.
Speaking during an investor call Monday morning, Paramount CEO David Ellison made it clear that he intends for HBO itself to stick around and “operate with independence,” adding that he personally counts Game of Thrones among his favorite HBO shows, according to Variety. “Our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO.”
At the same time, Ellison said that “we do plan to put the two services together,” and that “by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone.”
While Warners and Paramount have agreed to the broad terms of a merger, the deal is still subject to federal regulators.
The agreement between Warners and Paramount was announced late Friday, stunning Hollywood and the streaming industry. But while the players may have changed, the game remains the same: one streaming gobbling up another, resulting in fewer competitors and–almost certainly–higher streaming prices.
It’s still way too early to tell what a combined Paramount+-HBO Max streaming service would look like or what it might cost.
During Monday’s investor call, Ellison didn’t specifically say whether HBO Max would be swallowed up by Paramount+, the reverse, or somewhere in between. He also didn’t reveal (as Variety notes) whether there would be an “HBO Max” tile in the new combined streamer.
A more likely scenario would be prominent HBO branding, in the form of a tile or a row, within the new Paramount streaming app.
Beyond the presentation issues, the bigger deal is that following a successful Paramount-Warners merger, streamers who want to watch Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, or other HBO shows would also have to pay for Landman, Lioness, Tulsa King, 1923, and other Paramount+ originals, whether they want them or not.
The price of HBO Max’s priciest tier currently stands at $22.99 a month, while the top Paramount+ plan goes for $14 a month. If the merger goes through, it’s easy to imagine a combined Paramount/HBO Max streaming service costing more than $30 a month.
Ouch.