What This Massive Streaming Merger Means for You

Published: March 4, 2026

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By Michaela Gordoni

When the merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount completes, HBO Max and Paramount+ will combine into one streaming service while HBO, the brand, will “operate with independence.”

“As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” said Paramount CEO David Ellison. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space.”

“At Paramount, by the middle of this year, we’ll have completed the consolidation of our three services under one unified stack, and you can see us taking a similar approach to this platform going forward,” he continued. “And we think the combined offering, and given the amount of content and what we can do from the tech side, really will put us in a position to be able to compete with the most scaled players in DTC.”

Ellison said he wants to give HBO the opportunity to continue developing and programming content without much oversight from Paramount’s execs, he told Variety.

“Casey [Bloys] and his team do absolutely a remarkable job at HBO,” said Ellison. “And as we said, we do plan for that to be able to operate with independence, so that HBO can, candidly, do what it does incredibly well. Our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO. They built a phenomenal brand.”

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“They are a leader in the space, and we just want them to continue doing more of it. But by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone,” he said.

Ellison also committed to a 45-day theatrical window for movies before sending them to video-on-demand.

“Franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period,” Ellison said. “We really believe that movies should be seen in theaters, and we still believe that’s one of the most significant places that you can really create long-term resident intellectual property.”

The combined companies will have a library with popular franchises including HARRY POTTER, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, LOONEY TUNES, GAME OF THRONES, the DC Universe and more.

Netflix was slated to buy WBD before Paramount swooped in with a better deal. WBD is giving Netflix $2.8 billion in compensation upon breaking up its deal, The Athletic added.

The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal, which has an equity value of $81 billion, is expected to officially close in this year’s third quarter, according to Reuters.

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