After a months-long back and forth between Netflix and Paramount to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, it seems as if Paramount will win out.
But, with Paramount+ and the newly acquired HBO Max, how will the streaming platforms work? Will they be combined, and if so, how?
David Ellison wants to “put … together” the two streaming platforms, but time will tell whether his plans will work.
Who Will Win?
Both Paramount+ and HBO Max have strengths to bring to the table. HBO Max is bigger in its reach, while Paramount+ has the larger library. While HBO Max has gone through several rebrands (remember Max?), Paramount+ has stayed relatively steady.
As the decision for which one to win flips back and forth, perhaps there is a third option: neither of the above.
While many newscasters are opting for the third option when reporting on the possible combination, it should be noted that the new owners want to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single service.
It’s not clear when this will take place, what the new name will be, or what will happen once they are combined.
The Problem with Combining
The trouble lies in the fact that the Paramount+ and HBO Max merger is still “too new” to “contemplate how you can merge two streaming services of that size,” according to analyst Rayburn. He told THR, “There’s no way you would know.”
However, we do know some things, like what Ellison said last week.
“We… plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct to consumer subscribers. We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space. The combined offering, given the amount of content and what we can do from the tech side, really will put us in a position to be able to compete with the most scaled players in DTC.”
Rayburn noticed something about Ellison’s statement, though. “You’ll notice, though, [Ellison] didn’t use the word ‘combining.’ There’s a reason for that. And the reason for that is he doesn’t even know himself, because the work required if you want to combine services is so extensive and so unknown at this time.”
Perhaps the two services could be complements of each other, rather than combined completely.
Disney+ and Hulu
A great example of the combining services dilemma is Disney+ and Hulu. As Disney acquired more of Hulu’s properties, the services started to mesh.
Today, Hulu can be accessed via a tile on Disney+ or as a standalone platform. While Hulu isn’t completely disappearing, Disney aims to phase out the standalone app and use a more unified approach.
But even then, the platforms are still separate, whether you decide to peruse on Disney’s side of things or click on the Hulu tile within the app.
Differences in Platforms
If Ellison truly wants to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max, it will be a bigger undertaking than buying more cloud storage and importing the other service’s content.
The current editions of Paramount+ and HBO Max have differences in their functionality and regional offerings. Paramount+ may offer 24/7 live linear channels, but HBO Max does not. On the flip side, HBO Max is available in more than 110 territories and countries, while Paramount+ has only half that number.
Rayburn notes, “You have all the frontend issues, you have all the backend issues. It is more complex than pretty much anybody in the media understands.”
Not only will services be combined, but the workers, too. “There’s gonna be a lot of layoffs. We know that,” Rayburn comments. “So if you lay off a whole bunch of people at one company over another that has expertise of the platform or how it worked… to figure all that out is extremely time consuming.”
Plus, neither company can do any collaboration right now until the deal is complete, making the timeline to combine platforms even tighter.
However, many see both platforms as “very good,” so it seems that whoever has the better content offerings, usability, and reach will come out on top.