Paramount Skydance Corporation today (March 2, 2026) unveiled more details about its planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery during an investor call.
During the call with investors, Paramount revealed that:
• HBO Max & Paramount+ will be combined into one service;
• 15 films per studio with 45 day theatrical windows for each film;
• Merged company will have approximately $79 billion in debt;
• $6 billion in cost cutting including consolidating on tech infrastructure, real estate, corporate overheads & more;
• No plans to sell off/spinoff any of their cable assets, such as Nickelodeon — flexibility to put sports like UFC on any cable network;
• Will continue to licence movies & TV shows to other studios and platforms;
• AI will be a “tool for artists” but “never a replacement” for storytellers.
Below is a selection of articles about Paramount's plans for the newly merged company once its acquisition of WBD is complete.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
David Ellison Unveils Sweeping Vision for Warner Bros: “This Is About Reinventing the Business”
HBO Max and Paramount+ will be merged when the deal closes, the mogul told Wall Street early Monday morning.
David Ellison wants to forge a modern media and entertainment empire, and Warner Bros. Discovery will become its centerpiece.
The CEO of Paramount on Monday spoke for the first time about the $110 billion megadeal, which will see the smaller company, backed by tens of billions from his father Larry Ellison and tens of billions in debt from a consortium of lenders, swallow the larger one.
The result will be a behemoth, with two major film studios (Paramount and Warner Bros.); a jumble of TV studios; two major streaming services in HBO Max and Paramount+; and a stable of TV channels that will include CBS, TNT, CNN, MTV, Nickelodeon and HGTV that will make it a formidable player in the declining but lucrative pay TV business. It will be a major sports player, and will combine two TV news giants in CNN and CBS.
Ellison outlined the deal as being about the future of the entertainment business. “By uniting our iconic studios’ complimentary streaming platforms with a global footprint, our cable and linear networks, and our world-class IP, we have the opportunity to help shape the future and build a next-generation media and entertainment company. This has been our goal since day one,” Ellison said Monday. “This is not about consolidation, it’s about reinventing the business. We want to expand our reach and enhance our ability to create the world’s most compelling stories and experiences. And we’re incredibly excited about this transaction, and it will accelerate that ambition.”
Hollywood has been wary of the deal (just as it was wary of Netflix’s deal) out of concern for jobs and production. Ellison sought to assuage at least some of those concerns Monday, reiterating that the company was not planning to pull back on film or TV production. And of particular note to the TV business, he promised continued support for HBO, telling analysts that “HBO should stay HBO” and praising Casey Bloys and his team.
“HBO is a crown jewel in this business, having brought to life some of the most powerful stories told over generations,” Ellison said. “Under our ownership, 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, and we are committed to growing our studios and the popular shows they create.”
That being said, Ellison confirmed that once the deal closes, the plan is to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one major streaming platform.
And he committed to 45-day theatrical windows before sending films to premium video-on-demand (PVOD), echoing commitments made by Netflix. Ellison, of course, is a fan of big theatrical films.
“Franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period,” Ellison said Monday. “We really believe that movies should be seen in theaters, and we still believe that’s one of the most significant places that you can really create long-term resident intellectual property.
“Television is a completely different business in that regard,” he added. “You can obviously pierce the zeitgeist, and put huge hits up on the direct-to-consumer platforms. But when it comes to the DTC business, engagement is absolutely key to, obviously, success there. So you have to look at what drives engagement.”
But there will be financial impacts, and those remain a source of indigestion for the town. The company will have approximately $79 billion of net debt, Paramount chief strategy officer Andy Gordon told analysts on the call, and is targeting $6 billion in cost savings and 3X leverage within three years of closing.
That will mean lots of jobs lost, though they took effort to say that the majority of the savings will not come from labor, and “we have no intention to pull back on on production,” as Ellison said.
While the company may rationalize its real estate, Ellison and Gordon reiterated that they have no plans to sell any assets (no, not even cable channels) to try and deleverage.
“Like at Paramount, believe in the assets we’re buying,” Gordon said.
And it was hard to ignore one other thing missing from Monday’s Wall Street call: Jeff Shell, Paramount’s president, who is being investigated by an outside law firm in connection to a claim brought by a whistleblower who alleges that Shell shared confidential information with him related to the company’s UFC deal. The call was instead led by Ellison, Gordon and Paramount’s CFO.
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From Deadline:
“HBO Should Stay HBO”: David Ellison Vouches For Network’s Post-Merger Independence
David Ellison isn’t planning for a Game of Thrones-style Red Wedding scenario at HBO.
On a call with analysts on the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery deal, the Par CEO was quizzed on his approach to the premium cable network, and was unequivocal in his response: “HBO should stay HBO.”
As he touted a merged studio of more than 15,000 films and TV shows, Ellison praised HBO Max Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content. Under his leadership, HBO has been on a roll with the likes of The White Lotus, The Last of Us and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and Ellison expects this to continue in a Paramount environment.
“Casey and his team are doing an absolutely remarkable job at HBO and we do plan for that to be able to operate with independence, so that HBO can candidly do what it does incredibly well,” he said.
“Our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO. They are a leader in the space and we just want them to continue doing more of it, but by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience.”
Ellison was then quizzed on his favorite HBO show. Wags among readers might have wondered if he might say Succession, but the answer was in Westeros. “I think it’s hard not to say Game of Thrones,” he responded.
Asked about the value Paramount ascribes to HBO, which is often considered the jewel in the WBD crown, Ellison took a broader view: “The combination of these two companies really puts us into position to be able to compete with all the leading players in the space,” he said.
“We basically have 15,000 films and thousands of television episodes – iconic portfolio franchises from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the DC Universe, Game of Thrones, Mission Impossible, Top Gun, Transformers, SpongeBob and Star Trek. [This] is incredibly powerful – the combined D2C platforms is basically 200 million subscribers at close. To contextualize that’s roughly the size of Disney.”
Ellison confirmed he would look to merge the HBO Max and Paramount+ platforms following completion of the deal.
Last week, Paramount’s relentless hunt of WBD ended in success after its $31 a share offer was accepted, upending Netflix’s deal and setting the stage for a new era in Hollywood.
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From Deadline:
David Ellison Says Combining Paramount+ And HBO Max Will Create Viable Rival To Netflix
Paramount CEO David Ellison says the company’s pending merger with Warner Bros. Discovery will give it the scale it needs to compete with Netflix, especially when Paramount+ and HBO Max come together.
“We will combine the streaming portfolios of the two companies into one stronger platform over the coming years,” Ellison told Wall Street analysts Monday on a conference call to discuss the $111 billion deal. On Paramount+ and HBO, he said, “there are more than 200 million [direct-to-consumer] subscribers today, and more than 100 countries and territories worldwide, positioning us to compete effectively with the leading streaming services in today’s marketplace.”
Netflix said in January it ended 2025 with 325 million global subscribers. While Ellison’s estimate of the combined Paramount+ and HBO Max footprint is accurate, the 200 million figure counts each subscriber base separately. As with many of the leading streaming outlets, there is overlap, with many subscribers getting both services.
Another wrinkle, as AT&T discovered after acquiring Time Warner in 2018 and trying to level up in streaming, is HBO’s linear distribution. While the linear base is diminishing due to cord-cutting, the premium network still has millions of households getting it the old fashioned way, through cable and satellite providers. That means that new negotiations would have to be completed in order to explore streaming without limitations on pricing or packaging.
After merging Skydance with Paramount, Ellison, the tech-friendly son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, has steered an effort to blend the tech stacks of free, ad-supported Pluto TV, Paramount+ and BET+. That streamlines operations on the back end, saving money and making things run more smoothly. A similar consolidation on the tech front is likely with WBD, Ellison said.
“We think the combined offering, given the amount of content and what we can do from the tech side, really will put us in the position to be able to compete with the most scaled players in DTC,” he said.
As he did during Skydance’s pursuit of Paramount, Ellison emphasized his plan to invest in the tech behind Paramount+.
“When it comes to the DTC business, engagement is absolutely key to success there,” he said. “So you have to look at what drives engagement. It’s really more unbelievable content that the audience wants to engage in by combining these incredible studios and platforms, or delivering the audience more of what they want from a content perspective.”
Along with maintaining content investment, Ellison said, plans call for “significantly improving the tech product to keep people engaged with that platform for longer.”
Investing in both technology and content, the exec said, will yield “a product that can really compete with the best that’s coming out of Silicon Valley and the industry leaders in the space.”
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From Deadline:
Paramount Lightly Pushes Back On Post-Merger Layoff Speculation, Sees Majority Of Savings From “Non-Labor Sources”
Paramount executives tried to reassure regarding the extent of layoffs anticipated as it seeks $6 billion-plus in synergies within three years of closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The belief around town is that the savings would be mostly job cuts.
“It’s important to note that the majority of our synergy target comes from non-labor sources among the efficiencies we have identified,” said David Ellison on call with Wall Street media analysts to discuss the landmark merger announced Friday between Paramount and WBD. He said cuts would not touch production capacity.
He sees savings from “consolidating our spending technology stacks and cloud providers, including Paramount+ and HBO Max; realizing global efficiencies in procurement and business services; optimizing the combined real estate footprint and the broader corporate overhead; driving efficiencies in marketing; optimizing spending on agencies; and also migrating the combined company to a single enterprise resource planning, otherwise known as ERP system, and combining other IT systems across the company. Again, these are just a few examples of where we believe we will find meaningful efficiencies as we unite these storied companies.”
It’s not clear how reassuring that is. Many industry players believe the cuts must go well beyond $6 billion given the combined company’s massive debt load. A “majority” can mean just over half. Paramount had already undergone waves of layoffs leading up to and after its acquisition by Skydance.
At Paramount, Ellison said, “We’re well on our way to delivering on our transformation, and we are using a similar plan here. … obviously, on a larger scale.”
“I want to note that while we expect significant efficiencies and for that $6 billion to ultimately fall to the bottom line, it is important to note that we are positioning the business for investment and growth in addition to reducing debt over the near term,” he added.
Separately on the call, Ellison declined to respond to a question about contract negotiations with Hollywood guilds as that process begins to gather steam just as this giant media merger is taking off.
A combined Netflix and WBD was expected to see minimal staff cuts, according to co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Warner Bros. terminated its sale to the giant streamer last week and agreed to sell itself to Paramount for $31 a share in a deal worth $110 billion. Par expects the deal to close in the third quarter.
More to come
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From Deadline:
Paramount Claims Early European Regulatory Progress For WBD Deal
Paramount Skydance has a good feeling about European approval for its $111B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
Andy Gordon, Par’s Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer, told Wall Street analysts that his company had “already made significant progress in securing regulatory clearances globally” prior to the WBD dramatically deal closing last week. News had previously broken that the European Commission made the unusual move of beginning probes into both Paramount and Netflix’s offers for WBD.
“There’s no statutory impediments to close in the United States, [and] we’ve initiated pre-notification discussions with the European Commission already,” said Gordon. “As an example of our progress, Germany and Slovenia have already given their approval to proceed. We look forward to working with the remaining regulators across the world over the coming months.”
Reps for Paramount and the European Commission clarified that Gordon’s comments relate to approvals from the foreign direct investment (FDI) authorities for Germany and Slovenia, and don’t relate to competition. Either way, it’s a sign Europe’s watchdogs are getting on board with the deal.
The European Commission has noted it has not been formally noted of the acquisition yet, but it is very likely to look into a merger with as wide an impact as this one, with franchises such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Star Trek under one roof, alongside two Hollywood studios and numerous cable networks.
Even with all of those assets together, Reuters as reported a merged Par-WBD would control less than 20% of the European market, which lowers the chances of regulatory hurdles.
While most sources agree Europe is unlikely to be the deciding factor in the deal going ahead, as this could prompt more animosity with President Donald Trump, a Phase II probe would significantly hold up proceedings. Such an investigation takes at least 90 days to be completed in Europe.
With Paramount committed to increasing its offer for WBD by $0.25 every quarter after September 30 if a deal is not done, this wouldn’t be ideal for David Ellison’s company. It could also cause issues in the States.
As we’ve reported in recent days, Paramount isn’t completely out of the regulatory water in the U.S., with California Attorney General Rob Bontas announcing a probe into the deal, and a Phase II probe would give that more time to dig into the weeds.
President Trump’s position is always slightly unclear until he’s made a final decision. While his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, initially backed the Paramount deal personally through his Affinity Partners investment firm, the President has been critical of Ellison and his team, saying CBS news program 60 Minutes had treated him than under the previous ownership.
Numerous market watchers feel the likelihood is Trump will still give the deal the go-ahead, given his close ties to the Ellison family.
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From Deadline:
David Ellison Says ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ A Pivotal Event For Him As Paramount CEO Commits To 30 Theatrical Releases A Year Post-Merger: “Movies Should Be Seen In Theaters”
Paramount CEO David Ellison was emphatic about theatrical during a call with Wall Street on Monday. “It’s something we deeply, deeply believe in,” he said. “Large franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period.”
Talking through Paramount’s massive merger with Warner Bros Discovery announced Friday, he wound back to 2022 when one film in particular had a huge impact on his thinking regarding theatrical versus streaming.
“I’ll say I personally learned this lesson in 2022,” he said. “That year, we had Top Gun: Maverick, which, you know, became a cultural phenomenon, grossing $1.5 billion at the box office, and really is something that resonated culturally.” Ellison was a producer on Tom Cruise sequel, which jump-started the post-Covid theatrical marketplace.
Also that year, “at the same time, we released The Adam Project on Netflix, which, at the time of its release, was the most successful film on Netflix.” Ellison said he is incredibly proud of both films, “But [Top Gun] really did have a different cultural resonance.”
“It’s why we said from Day 1, when we acquired Paramount, that we weren’t going to be in the business of making movies directly for streaming,” he added. “We really believe that movies should be seen in theaters, and we still believe that’s one of the most significant places that you can really create long-term intellectual property. Television is a completely different business.”
Preserving the health of movies in theaters and the theatrical window has been a big concern as Netflix, which had downplayed cinemas for years, emerged victorious in the battle for WBD. Uproar from stakeholders pushed the giant streamer’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos to pinky-swear up and down that he was all in on theatrical.
The new version would combined two Hollywood studios, which also agitates industry players tremendously, especially given the decline in studio output after the 2019 merger of Disney and Fox. Ellison is trying to assuage those fears.
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From Deadline:
Paramount Won’t Sell Cable Networks After WBD Merger, Touts “Incredible Footprint” Of Combined Linear Business
Paramount executives stressed Monday that once merged with Warner Bros. Discovery, the company combined has no plans to unload any legacy cable networks.
CEO David Ellison and COO and Chief Strategy Officer Andy Gordon were asked about that several times by analysts on a call. They have spoken frequently already about the logic of retaining cable after Ellison’s Skydance acquired Paramount in August.
“We believe in the assets we’re buying, and there’s no plans to divest or spin off a package of cable assets at this time. And, in particular, we actually think, given the brands that Warner Bros. is bringing to Paramount, there are a lot of opportunities to think about all the different aspects of what they can do, both on the linear side and the digital side … So that’s our plan right now,” said Gordon.
Expressed another way: “We believe that many of our linear channels have incredible brand that can be reinvigorated for a streaming and digital world.”
Pressed on whether there were any assets at all that feel non-core and could be divested to reduce leverage, he said, “No. Very simply, we have no divestitures planned at this time.”
Comcast recently spun out most NBCUniversal cable networks into a new stand-alone public company called Versant. WBD was planning to do the same in its previous agreement with Netflix by separating its programming assets into another company called Discovery Global.
The deal Netflix inked with WBD last December was just for the Warner Bros studios and streaming assets. Warner terminated that deal last week after receiving a superior offer from Paramount, which is buying WBD in its entirety.
Ellison said that “putting the combined linear businesses together gives us an incredible footprint across both content and sports. It also gives us the operational efficiencies to keep those businesses healthier for significantly longer than they would be on a stand-alone basis, which will be good for jobs, be good for free cash flow.
“And there are incredible brands across the combined linear portfolio that we really do believe in being able to transition to a digital future. And we can then meet people where they are. If you want to have the choice to access it on the linear platform, you can do that, if you want to access those brands in the streaming ecosystem, you can. We believe that the combination of that will ultimately keep the portfolio healthier and prolong the life for longer than what is standalone businesses.”
The combined company, they said, will have a presence in over 200 countries and territories worldwide with a portfolio of cable and free-to-air networks including CBS, CNN, TBS, TNT, Food Network, HDTV, MTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Discovery Channel. It plans to provide more opportunities for global distribution and local production.
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From Variety:
HBO Max and Paramount+ to Combine Into One Streaming Platform, Paramount Says HBO Brand Will ‘Operate With Independence’
Paramount Skydance plans to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service, upon the completion of the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.
However, Paramount will want HBO, the brand, to “operate with independence.”
“As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said during an investor call breaking down the details of the planned merger Monday. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space. 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.”
Based on the call, it was not immediately clear what the setup of the new combined streamer will be, and whether HBO Max will be available as a tile within the service or fully integrated. However, Ellison did make it clear Paramount leadership wants to give HBO, currently run by Casey Bloys, the special treatment to continue developing and programming content without heavy oversight from Paramount’s execs.
“Casey and his team do absolutely a remarkable job at HBO,” said Ellison, who told analysts on the call that “Game of Thrones” is his favorite HBO series. “And as we said, we do plan for that to be able to operate with independence, so that HBO can, candidly, do what it does incredibly well. 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. But by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone.”
In December, Netflix outmaneuvered Paramount to secure a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming businesses for $27.75 per share. Last week, Paramount sweetened its offer to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its struggling cable business, increasing the proposal from $30 per share to $31 per share. WBD’s board accepted this as the “superior proposal” and Netflix declined to increase its bid, paving the way for the formal announcement of a merger between Paramount and WBD on Friday.
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From Variety:
Paramount Says It Will Release 15 Warner Bros. Movies a Year in Theaters, Reaffirms 45-Day Theatrical Window
David Ellison reaffirmed his pledge to release 30 films theatrically once Paramount merges with Warner Bros. Discovery.
“As we have said consistently, we are committed to delivering a broad pipeline of high quality storytelling, including 15 theatrical films per year per studio, for a total of at least 30 films annually,” Ellison told analysts during a conference call on Monday.
“We really believe that movies should be seen in theaters,” he added.
Ellison argued the company has “already demonstrated our ability to increase output,” noting that Paramount will release at least 15 films in 2026. That’s up from eight films in 2025. Warner Bros. also fell short of the mark that Ellison set for the studio, releasing 11 films last year.
Ellison praised the year that Warner Bros. had in 2025, calling it “a powerhouse slate,” while crediting such hits as “Superman” and “Minecraft” with “propelling” the company to $4 billion in box office revenue. He did not namecheck “Sinners” or “One Battle After Another,” two films from Warners that have dominated the awards season.
Netflix, which previously had a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery until Paramount blew its offer out of the water with its $110 billion pact, faced opposition from theater owners who worried the streamer would undermine their business and release fewer films in cinemas. The company’s chief Ted Sarandos tried to assuage their concerns, maintaining that Netflix would honor its commitments, but many exhibitors doubted his sincerity.
Ellison framed his commitment to theatrical in personal terms, noting that as head of the production company Skydance, he had seen firsthand the power of a traditional big screen release.
“When you look at the theatrical space, which is something we deeply, deeply believe in, large franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period,” Ellison said. “I personally learned this lesson in 2022. We basically had the largest theatrical box office film with ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ which became a cultural phenomenon, grossing $1.5 billion.”
“At the same time,” Ellison added, “we released ‘The Adam Project’ that summer on Netflix, which, at the time of its release, was the most successful film in Netflix… [it] previewed incredibly well with audiences but did have a different cultural resonance.”
How a theatrical release can propel a film into the cultural conversation influenced Ellison’s thinking when it came to overseeing Paramount and — if the deal is consummated — Warner Bros. Pictures.
“We said from Day 1 when we acquired Paramount that we weren’t going to be in the business of making movies directly for streaming,” Ellison said.
Ellison’s team hasn’t always been as enamored with the theatrical experience. Jeff Shell, who serves as Paramount’s president, pushed to reduce the theatrical window (the term for the amount of time a film plays exclusively in cinemas) from several months to 17 days when he served as head of NBCUniversal during the pandemic. But Ellison said the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. will honor a 45-day theatrical window before their films debut on home entertainment platforms.
Despite Ellison’s promises, there is skepticism about his ability to find and develop enough films to, in his words, “pierce the zeitgeist,” particularly given the more than $78 billion in debt that the combined companies will shoulder.
“If any studio could release more than 15 wide releases per year — a little more than one per month — and be successful, they would,” David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, recently told Variety. “In the course of one year, there aren’t more than 15 broad-appeal stories that a studio can develop, produce, market and distribute effectively around the world; 30 wide releases is extremely unrealistic.”
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Originally published: March 03, 2026.
H/T: SmartBrief, World Screen.
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