{"id":515421,"date":"2026-03-03T06:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515421\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T06:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:32:09","slug":"hbo-max-and-paramount-plus-apps-to-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515421\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max and Paramount Plus apps to combine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>T\ufeffhe apps on your TV are likely about to change &#8211; again.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the $US111 billion ($156 billion) merger of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/entertainment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery\">Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> announced at the weekend, the newly-combined company has revealed its plan for streaming\ufeff services.<\/p>\n<p>In a conference call on Monday (today AEST), chief executive David Ellison revealed the Paramount+ and HBO Max apps would become one platform.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/7fbe6266-b3f6-4244-a0a9-4593231df3a3.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>Hollywood giant Paramount beat Netflix in the race to purchase Warner Bros Discovery in a blockbuster merger of two entertainment icons.  (AP)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will combine the streaming portfolios of the two companies into one stronger platform over the coming years,&#8221; Ellison said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Across the two platforms, there are over 200 million DTC (direct-to-consumer) subscribers today in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide.&#8221;\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>In their end of year reports, Paramount said it had 78.9 million direct-to-consumer subscribers, while Warner Bros. Discovery reported 131.6 million.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Netflix, which lost out in the bidding war for Warner Bros, reported having 325 million subscribers globally at the end of last year.<\/p>\n<p>Ellison did not suggest a name for the new combined streamer, but it will almost certainly result in another rebrand for WBD&#8217;s streamer, which just this past summer rebranded back to HBO Max after spending two years as simply Max.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the merger, Paramount will also acquire CNN, which is currently owned by WBD.<\/p>\n<p>During Monday&#8217;s call, Ellison told analysts that Paramount has &#8220;no divestitures planned at this time&#8221; regarding cable \u2014 meaning the company does not plan to sell cable assets.<\/p>\n<p>The newly merged streaming giant will boast some of the most coveted franchises in television history, ranging from The Sopranos and Game of Thrones to recent hits such as Yellowstone.<\/p>\n<p>In a previous statement announcing the merger, Ellison has also pledged to keep the 45-day theatrical window for new films, and he promised the merged studios would put out 30 films a year.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\ufeffhe apps on your TV are likely about to change &#8211; again. As part of the $US111 billion&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-515421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}