(HBO) Max And Paramount+ In Talks To Merge Platforms
Casey Bloys, President of Programming of HBO, speaks onstage at HBO Max WarnerMedia Investor Day Presentation at Warner Bros. Studios on October 29, 2019 in Burbank, California.
Presley Ann/Getty Images for WarnerMedia.
Warner Bros. Discovery seem to continue shifting away from HBO with their streaming platform Max (renamed from HBO Max, 2020-2023).
Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are engaged in talks to combine streamers Max and Paramount+, according to CNBC. This would spring new life into Paramount+ and bring Max closer to a landmark 200 million-subscribers. Currently, Paramount+ has more than 71 million global streaming subscribers. Warner Bros. Discovery’s direct-to-consumer platforms totals to 100 million subscribers.
Paramount+ is still losing hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter, and is not expected to be profitable in the U.S. until mid-2025.
Paramount’s trio of CEOs told employees they are attempting to expedite their own profitability timeline.
Chris McCarthy (one of three CEOs), said they will be cutting costs and finding an international partner for Paramount+. George Cheeks added that they are “looking at selling certain Paramount-owned assets” and have “already hired bankers” to assist in the process.
Bloomberg reports Paramount is in talks to sell BET to the channel’s own CEO, Scott Mills, for $1.6 billion.
Paramount+ has major content that many U.S consumers seek to watch on a daily basis including; NFL, Nickelodeon, and CBS.
On the WBD side of things, the separation of HBO and Max was reinforced recently by a shift in management and strategy. WBD’s upcoming ‘Harry Potter’ series and the Green Lantern series ‘Lanterns’ were all changed from being Max originals to being HBO originals.
CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav is aware that HBO still holds a strong name in the cinematic scope of television, and with major I.P like ‘Game Of Thrones’ attached to it. The HBO brand remains enormously stronger than the Max brand, with Chairman and CEO (and HBO and Max Content Head) Casey Bloys says he wishes he made the strategy switch in time to include ‘The Penguin.’ If the name HBO was attached to the show instead of simply Max, it would boost its popularity up the rankings.
Makes you wonder; why didn’t they just start a streaming platform called HBO+ in the first place?
