Paramount+ and HBO Max will be sold as one from early 2027, and Skydance will stop saying how many people pay for them

Two of the world’s biggest streaming libraries are about to share a front door. Skydance said on Monday, US time, that from early 2027 subscribers will be able to buy Paramount+ and HBO Max together in a single bundle, putting Yellowstone, Tulsa King and Star Trek alongside The White Lotus, House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones.

The plan was set out in Skydance’s quarterly letter to shareholders and on a call with investors, one of the company’s first big announcements since it completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Skydance said it would share more details on the bundle and its streaming plans in the coming months.

Is this a merger or just a bundle?

For now, a bundle. Chief executive David Ellison described it as a “first step” towards bringing Paramount+ and HBO Max together into one combined service over a longer period. He told investors the two services are complementary, because in the US they skew heavily towards different groups of subscribers.

Skydance said it expects to align the two platforms’ back-end systems within a year of closing the Warner Bros. Discovery deal. For comparison, folding the free service Pluto TV into Paramount’s systems took about 18 months. No date has been given for a single app.

Will it cost more?

Skydance pitched the bundle as better value than paying for both separately, but has not announced a price. It said it would phase in changes based on how consumers respond, and the company told investors it expects strong revenue growth from streaming in the final quarter of 2026 and through 2027, while expanding margins.

It also left open what happens to other deals. HBO Max is currently sold in a bundle with Disney+ and Hulu in the US, and Ellison indicated Skydance would review such arrangements on whether they create value for shareholders.

What will subscribers get?

Skydance says the combined offer will bring a new film to its streaming services every two weeks on average, drawn from about 30 cinema releases a year across Paramount and Warner Bros. Paramount+ brings CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Landman, Lioness and the Star Trek franchise; HBO Max brings HBO’s prestige dramas, DC films and series such as Lanterns, and The Sopranos and Euphoria.

Why stop counting subscribers?

Paramount+, HBO and HBO Max together reach 203 million subscribers worldwide, and Pluto TV has about 75 million monthly users. From now on, Skydance says it will highlight engagement and other milestones instead of subscriber totals, following Netflix, which stopped reporting quarterly subscriber numbers in 2025. It makes it harder for outsiders to judge whether the merger is winning or losing customers.

What does it mean for Australian viewers?

Both services are sold separately in Australia today. Skydance has not said whether the early-2027 bundle will launch outside the US at the same time, so local subscribers will have to wait for the coming announcements. If the services are eventually merged worldwide, Australians who pay for both would go from two subscriptions to one app.

How does this fit the bigger shake-up?

Skydance has moved fast since taking over Warner Bros. Discovery. This week it replaced James Gunn and Peter Safran at the top of DC Studios, and the streaming bundle is the clearest sign yet of how it plans to take on Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video: with scale.