Analysis: One of the biggest media mergers in history completed overnight, with Paramount buying Warner Bros. for a staggering $US110 billion ($157 billion).
While these companies are known for their movie studios, for the average Australian, the real question is: what does this mean for streaming?
The Warner Bros. water tower is seen at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
The new company, known as Skydance, brings together everything Paramount and Warner Bros. own, from the studios themselves to the titles and franchises they’re known for, and, of course, their streaming platforms.
As with any merger, these things aren’t just done because there’s money to be made.
They’re done because there’s money to be saved.
Over the years ahead, there’ll be attempts to save money by merging the business functions, and one of those functions has to be the public-facing streaming platforms, HBO Max and Paramount+.
Simply taking that content and putting it into the Paramount+ app won’t work here in Australia.
Likewise, the Paramount+ app in Australia is vastly different to anything offered overseas.
Both the HBO Max app and Paramount+ aren’t big players in the Australian market as it stands.
Game of Thrones is one of the biggest shows on HBO Max in Australia. HBO
Our biggest platforms would undoubtedly be Netflix, Disney+, Prime, and Stan (owned by Nine, the publisher of this website), with Paramount+ and Apple TV challenging that top four closely.
None of these platforms report their subscriber numbers openly, but using services like JustWatch (an app that allows people to find content to watch), we can get a fair insight on what’s working in Australia.
What the Skydance team will be trying to understand right now is whether or not there are savings in merging the two streaming services.
The savings are unlikely to come in the technology itself.
It’s more likely that savings come from having to promote just one app instead of two.
At the same time, for consumers, understanding whether or not any merged service would need to come at a higher price and what impact that would have on subscriber numbers.
Critically, though, as mentioned above, Warner Bros. Discovery’s existing Foxtel deal is likely to be the thorn in the side of any attempt to merge the platforms, but it will be a case of wait and see.
In reality, the HBO brand is much stronger in Australia than Paramount+, so if you’re going to back an app, it’d probably be HBO Max, despite it having a smaller user base than Paramount+.
Outside of the streaming platforms, locally here in Australia, the new company remains the owner of Network 10.
Whether cost savings for the merged business impact that network won’t be known for some time.
Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan.