Does Paramount also have a plan for HBO?

Congrats, Paramount. You’ve succeeded in snatching Warner Bros. away from Netflix. Now what?

Thus far, Paramount hasn’t laid out a lot of a plan for Warner, apart from by some means mashing HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service. Its press launch principally extolls the worth of getting larger for shareholders, whereas viewers appear to be an afterthought. (The deal remains to be topic to regulatory approval and a vote by Warner shareholders.)

All of which leaves us with quite a lot of unanswered questions on how the merger will have an effect on the parents who really watch Warner and Paramount programming. In its zeal to embiggen itself, has Paramount thought by way of any of this?

Which app will survive?

In comparison with the HBO Max app, Paramount+ might be borderline insufferable, particularly on low-power units the place its interface is susceptible to skipping and lagging. Customers continuously complain in regards to the app’s high quality, and MakeUseOf’s Dan Selcke not too long ago discovered that loading Paramount+ and getting right into a present took 1 minute and 15 seconds on his good TV, 33 seconds longer than HBO Max.

You may suppose it’d be apparent which app to construct on for a mixed streaming service, however Paramount’s press launch doesn’t say which approach it’s leaning. It merely mentions “consolidating streaming know-how stacks” as a approach to save cash.

Both approach, count on a multitude. When Warner rebuilt its Max app on Discovery’s tech stack in 2023, it had all types of points and lacking options that took years to wash up.

What occurs to HBO?

“HBO ought to keep HBO,” Paramount CEO David Ellison mentioned this week, suggesting that the model will stick round and function with some autonomy. However will HBO keep front-and-center on a mixed service, or will it’s relegated to some seldom-visited part on a Paramount+ house display screen?

We’ve already been by way of one spherical of big-brained TV execs mistakenly pondering the HBO model doesn’t matter, with HBO Max rebranding as “Max” in 2023, then reversing course two years later. An unnamed supply instructed CNBC that HBO is “more likely to be a sub-brand inside the bigger service,” suggesting that Ellison might make the identical mistake.

How will pricing and packaging work?

HBO Max prices $11 per 30 days with advertisements, $18.49 per 30 days with ad-free programming and stay sports activities, and $23 per 30 days for 4K video. Paramount+ prices $9 per 30 days with advertisements, or $14 per 30 days for ad-free viewing, Showtime programming, and a stay CBS feed. Good luck reconciling all of that into one service that folks will really need to pay for.

Among the many issues Paramount might want to work out: Whether or not to cost additional for Showtime and/or HBO, whether or not to cost additional for 4K, and easy methods to partition sports activities programming. It might want to do all that whereas touchdown on costs which are nonetheless aggressive with different streaming companies. On condition that HBO Max’s customary plan already prices greater than Netflix—by far the more-watched service—there’s not a lot respiration room.

How is sports activities streaming going to work?

HBO Max’s ad-free tier at present presents all of the stay sports activities programming that airs on TNT, TBS, and TruTV. However previous to the Paramount deal, Warner had been planning to interrupt off that sports activities protection right into a separate “TNT Sports activities” service. That plan is probably going off the desk now, as Paramount desires sports activities to play a giant function in its mixed streaming service.

Nonetheless, streaming companies are more and more trending away from making everybody pay for sports activities. Disney presents a bundle of Disney+ and Hulu with out ESPN. Peacock presents a less expensive “Choose” package deal that excludes its sports activities protection. DirecTV now presents numerous stay TV packages with out sports activities channels, and YouTube TV is doing the identical.

Requiring an ad-free plan for stay sports activities appears counterintuitive, but each Paramount+ and HBO Max do that at present. A mixed service might present a much-needed reset, or it might simply make stay sports activities much more costly to entry.

What occurs to Discovery+?

Ellison has indicated that Paramount and Warner Bros. will mix all their streaming companies into “one platform,” but it surely’s unclear what meaning for Discovery+. Will it nonetheless be out there as a separate subscription inside Paramount’s app, or will current subscribers should improve to a costlier service?

This isn’t the primary time the way forward for Discovery+ has been in query. When WarnerMedia and Discovery merged in 2022, the unique plan was to close down Discovery+ in favor of HBO Max. The corporate then reversed course, not desirous to danger 20 million subscribers to a service that, in contrast to HBO Max, was really worthwhile. Will Ellison and firm come to the identical realization?

What’s the timeline for all this?

Paramount expects the Warner deal to shut within the third quarter of this yr. This assumes Warner’s shareholders vote in favor and regulators enable it, neither of that are givens.

Meaning HBO Max received’t see any adjustments till at the very least the autumn, however realistically it’ll take loads longer. For reference, WarnerMedia and Discovery accomplished their merger in April 2022, and the rebranded Max app constructed on Discovery’s tech stack arrived 13 months later.

The merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, if it occurs, will likely be much more difficult given the scale and scope of each corporations. Sure, Paramount can have achieved the aim of getting larger for larger’s sake. However does it even perceive what it’s stepping into by doing so?

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