With 325 million subscribers worldwide, Netflix is comfortably the biggest streaming service on the planet. The US platform, which began as a postal DVD rental service to challenge Blockbuster, has enjoyed a string of critical and commercial hits, like Stranger Things, Wednesday, Squid Game, Bridgerton, You, Love Is Blind, and Adolescence, to name just a few. It's also pioneered more affordable, ad-supported plans and tough password crackdowns.
Netflix is currently valued at £314 million – and it has plenty of rivals who want to mirror its success.
One of the biggest challengers looks set to be Paramount+. Owned by Paramount Skydance, the studio behind the likes of Top Gun: Maverick, the Mission: Impossible and Transformers series, and recent Star Trek films and series, has agreed to acquire Warner Bros Discovery for $110bn, roughly £82 billion.
Paramount Chief Exec. David Ellison has wasted no time confirming plans to merge Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single offering that brings together acclaimed series like The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Euphoria, The Wire, The Last of Us, with Paramount offerings like Yellowstone, South Park, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
It's only been a few weeks since HBO Max arrived on UK shores, bringing an end to a decades-long exclusive agreement between Sky TV and HBO, but this streaming app could already be living on borrowed time.
Paramount Skydance outbid Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year, but it's unclear when the merger will ultimately take place
|GETTY IMAGES
Paramount boss Mr. Ellison said stitching together HBO Max and Paramount+ would hand his company more than 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers. He told investors during a recent earnings call: “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space."
It's unclear whether this one-stop-shop streaming app will use the Paramount+ or HBO Max branding — or launch as an entirely new proposition. Expect the likes of HBO Max, TNT Sports, Paramount+, MTV, TLC, Comedy Central, and CNN International to all feature within the service, since all fall under Paramount Skydance following the deal.
| Service | Approx. No. Of Subscribers (In Millions) | Lowest UK price | Notes |
|---|
| Netflix | 325+ Worldwide | £5.99/mo |
| Prime Video | ~240 Amazon Prime Worldwide | £5.99/mo for Prime Video only | Amazon doesn't disclose Prime Video-only subscribers, only those with its fully-featured Amazon Prime plan |
| Disney+ | 132 Worldwide | £5.99/mo |
| HBO Max | 131.6 Worldwide for Warner Bros. Discovery | £4.99/mo | WBD only reports a combined streaming total, so this includes some TNT Sports subscribers |
| Paramount+ | 79 Worldwide | £4.99/mo |
| Apple TV | ~60m Worldwide | £9.99/mo | Apple doesn't disclose an official count, so this is an approximate figure |
Paramount execs have not revealed any details on how subscriptions will be priced.
If you're worried about what this pricey acquisition means for the future of your favourite HBO-branded shows, like Euphoria, The Last of Us, and House of the Dragon... it shouldn't have any impact. Mr Ellison reassured subscribers that HBO will "operate with independence" and continue under the CEO of HBO, Casey Bloys.
"Our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO. They built a phenomenal brand. They are a leader in the space, and we just want them to continue doing more of it. By bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone," Mr Ellison revealed in the earnings call.
David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, who has spearheaded the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery pictured at a film premiere with US actor and professional wrestler, Dwayne Johnson
|GETTY IMAGES
Later, the 43-year-old film producer and media mogul described HBO as "a crown jewel in this business."
He added: "It will continue to have the resources and independence to do what it does best. At the same time, we believe in licensing our content to other platforms and producing third-party content in our television studios."
Paramount Skydance is already in the process of bringing together multiple services — Paramount+, Pluto TV, Showtime — into a single unified system. This work is expected to be completed later this year. Mr Ellison said this will be the model for its approach with the Warner Bros. Discovery properties, stating: "At Paramount, by the middle of this year, we’ll have completed the consolidation of our three services under one unified stack, and you can see us taking a similar approach to this platform going forward.
"And we think the combined offering, and 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."
Netflix doesn't always brings its original films to cinemas, something that Paramount+ and HBO Max have promised to do for a minimum of 45-days across its portfolio of studios
|NETFLIX PRESS OFFICE
Despite direct-to-consumer (DTC) and streaming being a core focus of this immense acquisition, David Ellison said the combined Paramount-Warner company will maintain the 45-day film release window before moving titles to streaming. That's sure to please cinema chains like Odeon, Cineworld, Vue, and Everyman.
Netflix doesn't have a minimum theatrical window for its releases, with many of its biggest blockbusters — Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, The Thursday Murder Club, Roma, Marriage Story, Jay Kelly, and A House of Dynamite – only in the local multiplex for a very limited run of a few weeks to prioritise streaming above all else.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
There's still a long road ahead for the Paramount+ and HBO Max service.
The £82 billion acquisition is contingent on regulatory approval in the United States and Europe. Reviews are taking place to ensure that the merger doesn't violate antitrust laws or stifle competition. Germany and Slovakia have already signalled consent. David Ellison has spoken publicly to allay concerns that this mega-merger would usher in more layoffs and cuts to original programming.
A selection of some of the television shows, blockbuster movies, and documentaries available on HBO Max in the UK – the final European territory to see this streamer launch
|WARNER BROS DISCOVERY PRESS OFFICE
The ultimate irony of this entire deal? It was put together to rival a bid from Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which could've led to properties like Friends, Superman, and Eurosport to be folded into the Netflix app.
At the end of last year, Netflix believed it had successfully outmanoeuvred Paramount to secure a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $27.75 per share. But Paramount sweetened its deal by bundling the cable business that Netflix never planned to acquire and increasing the proposal from $30 to $31 per share. Warner Bros. Discovery accepted this as the “superior proposal” and Netflix declined to increase its bid.