HBO Max and Paramount+ Expected to Remain Separate Services, Says Warner Bros. Discovery Executive

Warner Bros. Discovery executive Casey Bloys told reporters that the upcoming merger with Paramount Skydance will not immediately combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single service. He said the merger is still pending and that leadership details have not been disclosed. Bloys pointed to the successful HBO Max-Disney bundle as a model, suggesting a similar partnership could make sense.

"I would say that I don’t want to comment on what is going to happen or anything like that, but I would point to the HBO Max-Disney bundle, which has been very successful. So could you see something like that happening? That would make a lot of sense," Bloys said. Bloys added that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has expressed respect for HBO’s legacy and appears eager to preserve its brand. He emphasized that current owners are interested in maintaining the strengths of HBO’s prestige programming. "I’ve had conversations with David, and he is very, very excited, very respectful of what the HBO team has done… I think, as in all of the owners that we have had, we have had people come in genuinely excited and wanting to maintain what we’ve done," Bloys said. The comments came during Bloomberg’s 2026 Screentime event, where Bloys declined to discuss his own future role in the merged entity. The merger is slated to close on Oct. 6, after which the combined streaming operations will be overseen by the new leadership team.