Paramount-Warner Deal Promises to Shake Up Streaming

Over the last few years, the streaming wars hit a standstill.

Netflix and YouTube have sat comfortably in the lead, competing head to head for the biggest share of viewing time in living rooms around the world. Disney and Amazon Prime Video have stood next in line. And then a host of other streaming services — HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock and Apple TV among them — have jockeyed for position in a distant lower rung.

That could be changing now, with Paramount Skydance buying Warner Bros. Discovery for $111 billion.

David Ellison, the chairman of Paramount Skydance, told investors this week that Paramount+ and HBO Max would eventually merge into one streaming service, a move that he said “really positions us to compete with the leaders in this space.” He didn’t say what the service would be called.

Here’s a look at how the combined Paramount+ and HBO Max could alter the streaming landscape:

A big jump in subscribers …

The money from streaming is largely made from subscriptions, and that is where a mash-up makes the biggest difference.

There is little overlap between Warner Bros. Discovery’s 132 million streaming subscribers, the vast majority from HBO Max, and Paramount+’s 78.9 million. In the United States, only 21 percent of all Paramount+ subscribers have HBO Max, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm.

As a result, Paramount executives said, a combined streaming app would have roughly 200 million subscribers total. That would put Paramount-Warner in the same orbit as Disney’s combined subscription count and reasonably closer to Netflix, which has the highest subscriber figure at more than 325 million.

… but a smaller change in viewing time.