‘We Believe in Sports’: Skydance Combining HBO Max, Paramount+
Those services have rights to the NFL, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, and more.
In the ongoing streaming wars, CBS Sports and TNT Sports parent company Skydance have announced a combined streaming bundle of Paramount+ and HBO Max set to launch in early 2027, according to a late Monday announcement. Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison announced the move, stating that it is a step toward fully unifying the two services.
"Bundling is our first step toward fully unifying the two services," said Ellison. "It lets us start capturing the consumer and monetization benefits of a fully unified product, and we believe consumers will be delighted by this."
The combined offering will provide an unmatched variety of entertainment, news, and sports content, including rights for the NFL, MLB, NHL, March Madness, the Masters, NASCAR, UFC, UEFA, and several major college sports conferences. Skydance currently has around 203 million direct-to-consumer subscribers globally, mainly due to Paramount+ and HBO Max. The merged service is expected to grow reach, engagement, retention, and revenue, as well as reduce costs and improve credit metrics.
Despite the positive earnings report, Skydance is still dealing with $80 million in debt, and its long-term debt has been downgraded from a BB+ rating to BB, indicating increased financial risk. To address this, Skydance plans to achieve substantial savings over the next three years, mainly through layoffs, reduced corporate overhead, real estate holdings, and unified back-end technology. Skydance sees the disrupted business models as an opportunity for growth and expansion.
Written by urgent.news from Front Office Sports's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
