HBO Max, Paramount+ merger will majorly affect your streaming services as billions in cuts revealed

HBO Max and Paramount+ will be combined into one streaming platform if Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros.Discovery gains regulatory approval, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said during a Monday call with investors. The combined streamer – which would merge the country’s fourth- and fifth-largest services – would boast about 200 million total subscribers according to current membership counts, Ellison added.That would put the new service on par with Amazon Prime, currently the second-largest streamer with about 200 million subscribers, and below Netflix’s dominant 325 million customer tally.David Ellison and his mega-billionaire pops Larry Ellison last week reached an agreement to buy Warner Bros.

Discovery for $31 a share after Netflix failed to hike its own offer and backed out of the brutal monthslong bidding war.The new conglomerate will release 30 films each year with an exclusive 45-day theatrical release window, David Ellison said, adding that the company will have about $79 billion in debt and aims to cut $6 billion in costs – all but guaranteeing layoffs are on the way.The deal – which would create a mammoth media empire including HBO, CNN, CBS and thousands of movie titles – still needs approvals from the US Department of Justice and European regulators.Ellison did not share details on how much the new streaming service could cost consumers.Paramount did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.Media experts had expected Paramount Skydance to copy Disney’s approach, offering its streaming services as bundle deals or à la carte, in an effort to expand its share of the market – a more flexible approach that could ease regulatory scrutiny on the deal.“I’m a bit surprised because I thought they’d keep the two things separate,” Derek Reisfield, a former media executive at CBS News and McKinsey who co-founded MarketWatch, told The Post.“I think the move here is, ‘We’re going to have a bet...