Skydance CEO David Ellison has stepped up efforts to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single streaming service, sparking questions about how much the mega-streamer will cost fans.
Ellison’s merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, worth $81 billion, officially closed on Tuesday, forming a new media giant called Skydance, after months of antitrust roadblocks.
In the “long term,” the company plans to “unite (HBO Max) and (Paramount+)” into one streaming service,” the executive told reporters Tuesday on his first day at the helm of the new Hollywood giant.
“It will take time to achieve this,” he added. “So I think immediately you will see them operating separately,” with “bundling” options available “in the relatively short term.”
Ellison said the company hopes to “accelerate how quickly we achieve this goal,” through advances in “AI technology and other things.”
He declined to comment further on the bundled options.
The combined streamer — which would merge the country’s third and fifth services — would have about 200 million total subscribers, according to Ellison.
From this perspective, an HBO Max-Paramount+ hybrid would be on par with Amazon Prime, currently the second-largest streamer with around 200 million subscribers, and still below Netflix’s dominant 325 million customers.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Ellison noted that a combined platform would allow Skydance to “compete with the Disneys, the Netflixes, the Amazons and anyone in the world.”
It’s unclear how much the combined service might cost and whether the company plans to raise prices. It has already announced $6 billion in cost cuts, including layoffs, but has not specified which divisions will be affected.
A basic HBO Max package with ads currently costs $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year. The premium, ad-free version costs $22.99 per month or $229.99 per year.
The Paramount+ Essential plan with ads costs $8.99 per month, while the Premium plan – which is ad-free and allows customers to stream CBS live – costs $13.99 per month.
This means that if the streamers’ prices were combined, a basic plan would cost $19.98 per month and a premium subscription would cost $36.98 per month.
But it’s likely the company will take a similar approach to Disney+ and Hulu, at least in the short term, by offering discounted bundled options.
A standalone Hulu plan costs $12.49 per month with ads or $21.49 per month without ads, while a Disney+ plan offers the same prices.
However, the popular Disney+ and Hulu bundle starts at $12.99 per month and goes up to $21.99 per month, which is a few cents more than what customers pay for the individual plans.
HBO Max is also included in a bundle with Disney+ and Hulu, but is priced much higher – starting at $21.99 per month with ads or $34.99 per month without ads.
HBO Max is home to popular shows like “House of the Dragon,” “Succession,” and “The White Lotus.” Paramount+ offers “Yellowstone” and its spinoff shows, as well as “Landman,” “Criminal Minds” and “South Park.”
Ellison initially announced in March that the two streamers would be merged if the merger received regulatory approvals – but company executives delivered mixed messages.
Casey Bloys, who was named Skydance’s chief content officer and will lead the integration of the two streamers, said last week that he expects the two platforms to remain separate with bundling options – without any mention of a combined service.
“I would say I don’t want to comment on what’s going to happen or anything like that, but I would point out the HBO Max-Disney package, which has been very successful,” Bloys said at Bloomberg’s Screentime event. “That would make a lot of sense.”
The Post has requested comment from Skydance.
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