Paramount Skydance plans to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service after it officially takes over Warner Bros. Discovery, the company\u2019s top executive announced Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,\u201d Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said during an investor call early Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the combined offering, 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\u201d in the direct-to-consumer streaming market, Ellison added.<\/p>\n
Paramount+ is home to the \u201cStar Trek\u201d franchise and \u201cYellowstone\u201d creator Taylor Sheridan\u2019s popular television shows. <\/a>HBO Max is the destination for \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d the Batman saga and recent hits like \u201cSinners.\u201d<\/p>\n The call came three days after Warner formally signed an agreement<\/a> to be acquired in a blockbuster deal by Paramount. The deal was inked after Netflix abruptly pulled out of the bidding war for Warner’s studio and streaming assets, closing the curtains on a corporate battle that had riveted Hollywood and beyond.<\/p>\n Paramount\u2019s offer of $31 a share values Warner at roughly $77 billion. The takeover bid, factoring in Warner\u2019s debt load, comes to a total of more than $110 billion.<\/p>\n If the Paramount-Warner merger is approved by regulators and shareholders, Ellison would take over a sprawling portfolio of assets that includes the Warner Bros. Pictures film studio, DC Entertainment, HBO and CNN. (Netflix\u2019s bid did not include Warner\u2019s cable channels.)<\/p>\n