Ellison indicates Paramount+, HBO Max will be merged

HBO Max and Paramount+ will eventually be combined into a single streaming service following the completion of Skydance’s merger with Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison.

Ellison outlined the company’s streaming plans during an event on the Paramount lot marking the closing of the merger. In the near term, HBO Max and Paramount+ will continue operating separately, with the company expected to pursue options including bundling the two services.

“Long-term, the plan is basically to bring them together,” Ellison said at a press event. “It’ll take a period of time to do that.”

Ellison did not provide a timetable for combining HBO Max and Paramount+ or discuss how a unified service would be priced. He said consumers could see shorter-term initiatives, including bundling, relatively quickly.

Together, HBO Max and Paramount+ have more than 200 million subscribers worldwide, giving the newly combined company considerably greater scale in its competition with Netflix, Disney+ and other major streaming platforms.

Bringing the services together, however, will require significant technical work. Paramount had already consolidated the technology supporting Paramount+, BET+ and Pluto TV following Skydance’s takeover of Paramount in August 2025.

Ellison said the company intends to centralize additional technology systems following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger “as quickly as possible.” 

The strategy would give Skydance an opportunity to reduce duplicated technology and operating expenses while creating a larger streaming product with programming from both companies. 

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Earlier in 2026, a report indicated that Disney would sunset the standalone Hulu app in favor of its Disney+ branding. The two platforms already share a backend infrastructure.