After nearly a whole year, a bidding war and a lawsuit, Paramount and Warner Bros. have officially merged. Now comes the hard part—what to call the company. ParaBros. or Warnermount?
While you’re pondering that, Netflix remembers iconic comedian Norm Macdonald with a new documentary. Jason Voorhees’ mother gets a backstory of her own in a new Peacock prequel and Gilmore Girls fans get an immersive recreation of Stars Hollow. Plus, David Bowie can be a birthday boy again, just for one day, but he’s getting a yearlong tribute for his 80th.
There’s a lot of business lingo and jargon surrounding the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger, but when it really comes down to it, what almost all of us want to know is what’s going to happen to Paramount+ and HBO Max. For right now, the answer is nothing. They will stay standalone streaming services.
But eventually, they will merge into one unified collection of content. While that certainly means greater access to shows like Yellowstone, The Sopranos and Sex and the City, it also means it’s going to come with a price. The merger, now operating under the newly formed Skydance company, will take on $80 billion of debt.
Who is going to cover that debt? Well, partially you (and every other subscriber). Which means prices are likely to rise for greater access to this combined catalog of content.
But it’s not just us shouldering the cost. The financial hit may also impact employees of this newly merged company in the form of layoffs, as Skydance could eliminate jobs in order to cut costs, joining companies like Disney who have recently laid off good portions of their staff. So, while no major changes are going to be felt in the immediate future, get ready.
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