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\n This story will run in\u00a0Buffering, Vulture\u2019s newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to\u00a0vulture.com\/buffering<\/a>\u00a0and subscribe today!\n <\/p>\n \n Integrating Paramount\u2019s new \u201ccrown jewel\u201d into the merged Paramount\u2013Warner Bros. could prove difficult. (Left to right: Cindy Holland, David Ellison, and Casey Bloys.) With a signed deal to take over Warner Bros. finally in hand, Paramount CEO David Ellison this week began the process of trying to sell Wall Street and Hollywood on the value of his megamerger. Some of what he told investors during a Monday conference call<\/a> and on CNBC on Thursday<\/a> fell into the category of eye-rolling spin<\/a>, but Ellison also offered up one nugget of news designed to send a message that this acquisition wouldn\u2019t be all about layoffs and budget cuts. \u201cHBO is a crown jewel in this business,\u201d he said, singling out HBO\/HBO Max CEO Casey Bloys for praise and vowing that under Paramount ownership, the storied brand \u201cwill continue to have the resources and independence to do what it does best.\u201d Nice words \u2014 but it\u2019s doubtful anyone at HBO or HBO Max is breathing any easier as a result.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because of something else Ellison revealed on the call, namely that he plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single offering. It\u2019s not that this was a surprise or even necessarily a bad idea: We\u2019ve known for a while that consolidation of streaming apps was inevitable, and we\u2019ve already seen that happen at Disney (where Hulu and Disney+ are in the process of merging) and Amazon (which folded its Freevee service into Prime Video). But HBO hasn\u2019t meant just HBO for years now, and merging it with Paramount+ isn\u2019t as simple as what Disney did when it redefined FX, transforming it from linear channel to streaming brand and giving it a tile on Hulu. HBO \u2014 and by extension Bloys \u2014 is now intrinsically linked to the broader HBO Max.<\/p>\n And because all content for both HBO and HBO Max report into Bloys, the exec long ago stopped being the guy in charge of just making a curated collection of \u201cnot TV\u201d HBO Emmy-bait titles. His purview, and that of his team, extends to producing more network-y style shows such as The Pitt; expanding the portfolio of international productions (such as the series version of Like Water for Chocolate); managing HBO\u2019s library of current and classic movies; and overseeing acquisitions of both classic and new TV shows from outside providers (think Heated Rivalry<\/a>). So when Ellison says Bloys and HBO will be given the \u201cresources and independence to do what it does best,\u201d these are the obvious next questions: How does he define the \u201cwhat they do\u201d part? And will it be enough to keep the current HBO brain trust in place?<\/p>\n This question is a thorny one. Ellison already has a chairman-level exec whose job description overlaps more than a little with Bloys\u2019s portfolio: former Netflix content chief Cindy Holland. She\u2019s CEO of all streaming at Paramount, overseeing not just content but also the nuts and bolts of the platform business. Her job combines everything Bloys does with many of the functions of Bloys\u2019s colleague JB Perrette, the CEO of streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery. But as broad as her mandate is, Holland is primarily known as a creative executive, one who landed her current gig because she works well with producers and actors and whose mere presence at Paramount was intended to woo top-name talent to the company. And she\u2019s done exactly that, signing up the likes of Nicole Kidman <\/a>and Anne Hathaway <\/a>for new shows.<\/p>\n In theory, it\u2019s possible that Ellison just lets Bloys hold on to the bulk of his development team \u2014 particularly top programming lieutenants Francesca Orsi and Sarah Aubrey \u2014 and allows them to make the same number and kinds of shows they\u2019re currently making at HBO Max while Holland keeps doing what she\u2019s doing as well. For that to work, however, Bloys would almost surely need to report to Ellison rather than Holland, so he could maintain the direct line to the top of the company he has now at WB Discovery, where he answers only to CEO David Zaslav. Would Holland be okay with ceding so much programming power to Bloys when she would still ostensibly be head of all streaming? It seems a stretch, and yet, if you look at how Ellison has structured Paramount so far, it\u2019s not completely far-fetched.<\/p>\n Late last year, he recruited former Facebook exec Dane Glasgow to serve as chief product officer, putting him in charge of building a new tech stack to house Paramount+ and Pluto. But while those services are overseen by Holland, Glasgow reports to Ellison and not Holland. Similarly, even though CBS News, on paper, still answers to CBS CEO George Cheeks, the woman who actually runs that division \u2014 Bari Weiss \u2014 answers to Ellison, not Cheeks. So there is precedent at Ellison\u2019s Paramount for \u2026\u00a0 an unconventional org chart.<\/p>\n But while you can game out scenarios where Bloys and Holland worked together side by side, running separate streaming brands within the same streaming platform, such an outcome still seems unlikely. Even if Ellison\u2019s goal is for the new Paramount+ to scale up and become the No. 2 streaming power behind Netflix, is he really willing to let Bloys keep spending what he\u2019s been spending at HBO Max while Holland and her team also invest billions to expand the current Paramount+ slate? The newly combined Paramount\u2013Warner Bros. is going to be knee-deep in debt and desperate to cut costs. How much content can Ellison really afford?<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a real danger of creative overlap. As noted earlier, Bloys\u2019s job description has greatly expanded in the last six years, as has the definition of the HBO\/HBO Max brand. Combining his team and their content with Paramount+ is not the same as weaving Showtime into Paramount+ or moving FX over to Hulu. Plus, in the six months or so she\u2019s been at Paramount, Holland has recruited her own exec team and started green-lighting projects that feel less like what the company had been making under its previous regime (which was lots of Taylor Sheridan or Star Trek) and more like shows you\u2019d see on \u2026 HBO Max.<\/p>\n Disney was able to make the FX-Hulu integration work because their programming chiefs, John Landgraf and Craig Erwich, have very different tastes and programming mandates and very distinct brands, minimizing the chances of the two men stepping on each other\u2019s turf. That\u2019s not the case with Holland and Bloys. So while Ellison says he wants to give HBO \u201cresources and independence\u201d to do what it does best, he is first going to have to define exactly how he sees that mission \u2014 and whether Bloys and Holland agree with it.<\/p>\n If all this sounds like a battle is shaping up between Holland and Bloys over who controls the streaming platform at Paramount\u2013Warner Bros., well \u2026 maybe? Because of their overlaps, it would be na\u00efve to not think Ellison might eventually have to choose between the two, just as he will also have to figure out whether to use HBO Max or Paramount+ as the brand name for his new supersize single streamer \u2014 or, God help us all, decide to go with a totally new moniker. Disney\u2019s consolidation of Hulu and Disney+ was delayed for years because of Comcast\u2019s lingering stake in the former. Ellison faces no similar issues and has strong incentive to be decisive.<\/p>\n That said, it is still early. The path to finalizing his Warner Bros. Discovery purchase looks pretty smooth right now, but if the last year has shown us anything, it\u2019s to not count your deals before they\u2019re closed. Ellison will need to have many meetings and conversations with the current HBO Max team (not to mention leaders at Warner Bros. TV, which has given Max big hits like The Pitt) so that he can understand their brand and output. Similarly, it would probably make sense for Holland and Bloys to talk, at least to the extent they can, given restrictions on communications between two merger parties prior to the consummation of a deal.<\/p>\n Those of us on the outside can make all the assumptions we want about whether execs can or should work together and what each party wants.\u00a0But Holland and Bloys are both respected leaders focused on The Work rather than egomaniacs looking to protect their personal brands or future ambitions. So even if it seems likely that only one of them can remain with the company when all the dust settles, it\u2019s entirely possible that they get together and figure out a way forward. Whatever happens, getting this right promises to be a massive test for Ellison \u2014 and a crucial bellwether for the future of HBO.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story will run in\u00a0Buffering, Vulture\u2019s newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to\u00a0vulture.com\/buffering\u00a0and subscribe today! Integrating Paramount\u2019s new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171390,97595,171391,11948,156,2592,111,139,69,3291,46471,437,12844],"class_list":{"0":"post-316191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-buffering","9":"tag-casey-bloys","10":"tag-cindy-holland","11":"tag-david-ellison","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hbo","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-streaming","18":"tag-streamliner","19":"tag-tv","20":"tag-vulture-homepage-lede"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty\n <\/p>\n