Yep, Netflix is shopping for Warner Bros. What occurs to HBO Max?

It’s a deal so staggering that it’s onerous to wrap your head round it: Netflix is ready to purchase Warner Bros., in a deal that features every little thing from Sport of Thrones and Harry Potter to Superman and Citizen Kane. 

Additionally included within the deal is a bit streamer referred to as HBO Max, which simply capped a 12 months of large modifications with one of many largest earthquakes in streaming historical past.  

At this level, Netflix’s settlement to buy Warner Bros for $82.7 billion is simply that—an settlement. It’s nonetheless topic to frequently approvals, to not point out the whims of President Trump, and it’s additionally contingent on Warner Bros finishing the spinoff of Discovery and its numerous TV properties. 

Nonetheless, if the deal does undergo, the implications for each the normal film studios and the streaming world are large. Sure, we’ve seen streamers gobble up film homes earlier than—keep in mind, Amazon purchased MGM, together with the James Bond franchise, roughly 4 years in the past—however nothing on this scale. 

The deal additionally raises all types of questions, together with a biggie: What occurs to HBO Max? 

The reply, at the very least for now, is murky. In response to Selection, Netflix has “signaled” that it’ll preserve HBO Max as a “discrete service,” however in a press launch asserting the deal, it additionally talked about “including the deep movie and TV libraries” of Warners, HBO, and HBO Max to Netflix’s catalog. 

After all, it doesn’t matter what Netflix says now, plans can change. Certainly, it’s straightforward to think about a state of affairs like we’re seeing with Disney+ and Hulu, the place one service slowly however certainly gobbles up the opposite. Disney nonetheless hasn’t stated for certain whether or not standalone Hulu goes away, however that appears to be the route the place issues are headed. 

So it may effectively be that we find yourself with a Netflix that, like Disney+, has an HBO Max part, the place Sport of Thrones, Intercourse within the Metropolis, and different HBO properties reside. HBO Max might live on as a standalone service for awhile, however similar to what’s taking place with Hulu, HBO Max by itself will probably fade away. 

That would depart us with a monstrously massive Netflix, and with HBO Max eradicated as a competitor, greater costs. Are you able to think about Netflix for $30, perhaps $40 a month? Seems like cable once more, doesn’t it? 

It’s price saying once more that this isn’t a finished deal but. Netflix faces critical headwinds in its quest to buy Warner Bros., notably relating to Donald Trump, who is claimed to have favored the bid from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance.  

And Hollywood, fearful that Netflix will pull the plug on full theatrical releases for Warner Bros.’s upcoming slate, will furiously foyer Congress towards the acquisition. (Netflix has reportedly dedicated to conserving Warners motion pictures in theaters.) 

However if you happen to requested me to guess proper now if the Netflix/Warner Bros. deal will undergo, my reply could be yeah, most likely.  

And what’s going to that imply for HBO Max? A sluggish fade-out, I’d wager.