Throughout a name with buyers on Monday, Paramount Skydance head David Ellison insisted that, if his deal to accumulate the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery for about $110 billion receives the required regulatory approvals, he plans to merge Paramount Plus and HBO Max. Ellison famous that combining the providers collectively would give Paramount Skydance “just a little over 200 million direct to client subscribers,” however he insisted that the corporate would need the HBO brand to “function with independence.”
“Our viewpoint is HBO ought to keep HBO,” Ellison mentioned. “They constructed an exceptional model. They’re a pacesetter within the house, and we simply need them to proceed doing extra of it. However by bringing the platforms collectively, all of our content material will have the ability to attain even a broader viewers than we will do standalone.”
Ellison didn’t touch upon any potential management modifications at WBD, however he recommended HBO’s head of programming Casey Bloys for doing an “completely a exceptional job” operating the community at present.
Throughout the identical name at the moment, Ellison stated that the newly merged Paramount Skydance / WBD will decide to the theatrical launch of no less than 30 movies yearly, and cited Paramount’s present plan to launch 15 films in 2026 as proof that the corporate can hit this new goal.