Is another name change coming to HBO Max?
Paramount Skydance is planning to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service, Paramount CEO David Ellison said in an investor call on Monday, Variety reported.
That would mean that popular shows like “Game of Thrones,” “Yellowstone,” “Star Trek” and “The Sopranos” would all be found on the same streaming service, per CNN.
The announcement follows the news that Paramount will purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of HBO, merging the two studios. However, the merger is not yet a done deal: It will “almost surely attract regulatory scrutiny from the Justice Department because — without divestments — it places major swaths of the film, television and news industries under one roof,” according to The Washington Post.
What does Warner Bros.-Paramount deal mean for HBO Max?
Ellison said during the call that Paramount plans for “HBO to stay HBO” after the deal is finalized, per Variety.
“(HBO) built a phenomenal brand. They are a leader in the space, and we just want them to continue doing more of it,” Ellison said. “But by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone.”
Between the two platforms, there are over 200 million subscribers, Ellison said, according to the Post. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, there is some cross-subscription between the two services — nearly 14% of the subscriber pool already subscribes to both services.
By comparison, Netflix had over 325 million subscribers as of Dec. 31, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Will HBO Max change its name again?
Although Ellison didn’t say in the call what the new combined streaming service would be called, CNN says that it will “almost certainly result in another rebrand” for HBO Max.
HBO Max has gone through its share of changes since the streaming service first debuted as HBO Go in 2010. It was renamed HBO Max in 2020 but was changed three years later to simply Max, but the name change was reversed last year, bringing back HBO Max, according to CNBC.
What’s the latest in the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal?
Netflix dropped out of the running in the Warner Bros. deal last Thursday, paving the way for Paramount to step in. The Warner Bros. deal is valued at $110 billion, according to The Washington Post.
The potential merger has raised regulatory questions, though Ellison said in Monday’s call that they didn’t anticipate hurdles from regulators, The Washington Post reported. But it’s still possible that the Justice Department could become involved in the deal that would combine two major film studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount, as well as two news brands, CBS and CNN, and the two streaming services.