David Ellison (Again) Says He Plans to Combine HBO Max and Paramount+

Perhaps Casey Bloys did not get the memo. On Tuesday, Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison told reporters that “long term,” he plans to “bring [HBO Max] and [Paramount+] together” as one streaming service. “It’ll take a period of time to do that,” Ellison said, referring to merging the two tech stacks. “So I think in the immediate you will see them operated separately.” “Given the way AI technology and other things have progressed, we think we can actually accelerate how quickly we accomplish that goal,” he continued, adding that “bundling” the services will be available “in the relatively short term.” Ellison said he could not be more specific today on the bundle options. Just last week, Bloys, who will head up all of streaming at the combined Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery, now simply called Skydance, said he believes HBO Max and Paramount+ will remain separate services with the option to be packaged together. “I would say that I don’t want to comment on what is going to happen or anything like that, but I would point to the HBO Max-Disney bundle, which has been very successful,” Bloys said at Bloomberg’s Screentime event. “So could you see something like that happening? That would make a lot of sense,” he asked and then answered. Well, there’s a new plan, Casey. Actually, it’s kind of the old plan. In March, Ellison signaled to Wall Street that he plans to combine his main streamer with WBD’s. “We do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct to consumer subscribers,” he said on a call with investors. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space.” Of course, Ellison didn’t actually own Warner Bros. at the time. The HBO brand will continue to “operate with independence,” Ellison promised on the March call. “Casey [Bloys] and his team do absolutely a remarkable job at HBO. 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. They are a leader in the space, and we just want them to continue doing more of it.”