Ellison: HBO Max and Paramount+ to Merge Into One Service

David Ellison said the long-term plan is to bring HBO Max and Paramount+ together into a single service, following the close of the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger. He spoke at a press event on the Paramount lot marking the completion of the deal, according to Deadline.

In the immediate term, Ellison said, the two services will be operated separately. Bundling will be accelerated in the relatively short term, though he said he could not yet be specific about those plans. HBO Max and Paramount+ combined have more than 200 million global subscribers.

Ellison said the company has already brought together the tech stacks of Paramount+, BET+ and Pluto TV, and credited advances in AI technology for helping that consolidation. Centralization of the tech stacks after the merger close will happen as quickly as possible, he said.

Earlier consolidation

The tech-stack project was completed in record time after Skydance took over Paramount in August 2025, Ellison said. Earlier this week, Skydance released a slide deck including images of both HBO Max and Paramount+. Recently, Casey Bloys hinted that bundling would be the focus given the distinct subscriber bases of the two services.

Streaming consolidation has a recent precedent at Warner Bros. Discovery. In 2022, WarnerMedia merged with Discovery Communications. After that merger, executives initially planned to merge Discovery+ with HBO Max under the brand Max, then stepped back from the plan and reversed the Max rebrand amid viewer and partner confusion.