Paramount+ and HBO Max Will Be Sold as One Bundle in 2027. Here’s the Money Behind It
Paramount+ and HBO Max are about to be sold together. Skydance, as Paramount Skydance renamed itself when it completed its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, says the bundle starts in early 2027. It has not said what it will cost. What it has disclosed is the money behind the deal: a big subscriber number that needs a footnote, $87 billion of gross debt, and a plan to cut at least $6 billion of annual costs.
The short answer
Skydance will offer Paramount+ and HBO Max as one bundle from early 2027, as a first step toward a single service. No price has been announced. The services count 203 million subscribers, a figure that does not strip out people who pay for both, and the combined company carries $87 billion of gross debt.
The Skydance bundle: the key numbers
Item | Figure | Note |
Bundle launch | Early 2027 | No price announced |
Paramount+, HBO and HBO Max subscribers | 203M aggregate | Does not remove overlap (footnote 6) |
Paramount+ subscribers, end of Q3 | 82.2M | +6% YoY; Paramount only |
Pluto TV monthly active users | ~75M | Free, ad-supported |
Gross debt after the 6 Oct close | $87B | Cash ~$10B, part earmarked |
Synergy target | At least $6B a year | Run-rate within 3 years, net of reinvestment |
Net leverage target | 3.0x by end of 2029 | Investment-grade metrics in ~3 years |
Free cash flow target | More than $10B in 2030 | Company target |
All figures are from Skydance’s Q3 2026 shareholder letter, filed as Exhibit 99 to its 9 November 2026 Form 8-K.
What’s in the Paramount+ and HBO Max bundle, and when does it start?
Here is exactly what Skydance said: “Our first step toward bringing together Paramount+ and HBO Max is to offer them in a single bundle. Starting in early 2027, consumers will be able to subscribe to both world-class streaming services at an even greater value. We look forward to sharing more details on the bundle and our streaming roadmap in the coming months.”
That is all that has been confirmed. There is no announced price, tier structure or launch date beyond “early 2027.” The letter also says that with at least 30 theatrical releases a year from the combined studios, “a new movie will arrive across our bundled services every two weeks, on average.”
How many subscribers do the two services really have?
Skydance says Paramount+, HBO and HBO Max “combined reach 203 million aggregate subscribers worldwide.” The footnote matters more than the headline. Footnote 6 of the letter says the number is based on each company’s historical subscriber definition; that on the Warner Bros. Discovery side it covers only HBO and HBO Max, not Discovery+ or other services; and that it “does not account for subscriber overlap.”
In plain English: 203 million does not strip out people who pay for both Paramount+ and HBO Max. Anyone subscribed to both is counted twice, so the number of unique paying households is lower. Skydance has not published a de-duplicated figure. The definitions also differ: Paramount+ uses the definition in Skydance’s Q3 2026 Form 10-Q, and HBO and HBO Max use Warner Bros. Discovery’s historical one.
In Q3, which excludes Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount+ ended the quarter with 82.2 million subscribers, up from 81.6 million at the end of Q2 and up 6% year over year. Pluto TV, the free ad-supported service, has about 75 million monthly active users. This is also the last time we will get these counts: beginning with Q4 2026 results, Skydance says it will no longer provide quarterly subscriber disclosures and will highlight milestones and KPIs such as engagement instead.
The money: how Paramount+ is growing, and what Q3 showed
An important caveat first: the Q3 2026 results cover Paramount Skydance only and exclude Warner Bros. Discovery, because the acquisition closed on 6 October, after the quarter ended. With that in mind, Q3 revenue was $7.0 billion, up 5% from $6.7 billion. Net earnings were $73 million and adjusted EBITDA was $1.0 billion, a 14.2% margin. Operating income was $368 million, including $187 million of restructuring and transaction-related costs.
Page 21 analysis: Paramount Skydance Q3 2026 by segment (excludes WBD)
Segment (Q3 2026) | Revenue | Growth | Adj. EBITDA (margin) |
Paramount+ | $2,134M | +21% | Within DTC |
Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) | $2.5B | +11% | $225M (9.0%) |
TV Media | $3.0B | −7% | $1.0B (34.0%) |
Studios | $1.5B | +23% | n/a here |
Total company | $7.0B | +5% | $1.0B (14.2%) |
In the same pre-merger quarter, Paramount+ revenue grew 21%, its fastest quarterly growth this year, with average revenue per user up about 14% and engagement up more than 20% year over year. The streaming business is growing, but traditional TV still makes most of the profit: TV Media’s adjusted EBITDA margin was 34.0%, against 9.0% for DTC. On a pro forma basis including Warner Bros. Discovery, Skydance says DTC revenue grew 15%. Paramount remains on track for the high end of its 2026 profitability outlook at $3.9 billion.
Cash generation was thin in Q3, again for Paramount Skydance only. Free cash flow was $31 million, after $174 million of restructuring, transaction-related and transformation costs. Before the acquisition, Paramount Skydance had $1.4 billion of cash and $15.0 billion of gross debt at the end of September.
$87 billion of debt and a $6 billion savings target
The Warner Bros. Discovery deal was funded with $47 billion of new equity and $57 billion of new secured debt. After closing and related debt activity, gross debt was $87 billion, with cash of about $10 billion, part of which is earmarked for cash-converted equity owed to WBD employees and for paying down WBD’s securitization program.
To service that, Skydance is targeting at least $6 billion of annualized run-rate synergies within three years, net of reinvestment. That is a yearly saving the company aims to reach by the end of the period, not a one-time cut. It expects to realise 30% in year one and 70% through year two, across more than 20 workstreams and an expense base of more than $50 billion. One-time cash costs to achieve the savings are expected to be roughly $1.5 billion to $2 billion in 2027 and roughly $4 billion over the whole transformation.
Page 21 analysis: how deep are the cuts?
Area | Minimum savings | 2026 cost base | Savings as % of base |
Corporate overhead, real estate and facilities | $2.2B | ~$8B | ~28% |
Technology | $1.4B | ~$4B | ~35% |
Procurement | $1.4B | ~$9B | ~16% |
Marketing | $1.0B | ~$5B | ~20% |
Total programme | At least $6B | More than $50B | Under 12% |
The percentages are our calculation from the letter’s figures. Proportionally, the deepest target is in technology, at about 35% of its cost base; the biggest in dollars is corporate overhead, real estate and facilities. Separately, Paramount’s earlier efficiency programme is on track for more than $2.7 billion of run-rate savings by the end of 2026, and Skydance has raised that target to more than $3 billion; the remainder due in 2027 is incremental to the new programme.
The balance-sheet goals: net leverage of 3.0x by the end of 2029, investment-grade credit metrics within about three years of closing, and annual free cash flow of more than $10 billion in 2030.
Skydance says it will share more at an Investor Day in the first half of 2027.
Will the two apps become one?
That is the stated direction. The integration of Pluto TV with Paramount+ took about 18 months, the letter says. Drawing on that experience, the combined technology team and AI tools, Skydance expects to bring Paramount+ and HBO Max together “much faster,” aiming to align backend systems within a year of the 6 October closing, “enabling us to quickly deliver a unified product.” The bundle comes first; a single service is the destination, with no date announced.
What this means for the streaming wars
Skydance is starting from scale. It says it is the second-largest media distributor by share of total U.S. TV time after YouTube, per Nielsen, owns a library of more than 15,000 films, and starts from more than $30 billion of annual content spending. Chairman and CEO David Ellison and Co-CEO Ynon Kreiz signed the letter.
The open questions are the ones the letter does not answer yet: what the bundle will cost, how many of those 203 million subscriptions belong to the same households, and whether savings arrive fast enough to cut $87 billion of debt while still spending heavily on content. The first answers are due when Skydance announces bundle details “in the coming months.”
Paramount+ and HBO Max bundle FAQs
When is the Paramount+ and HBO Max bundle coming?
Skydance says the bundle will start in early 2027. Its Q3 2026 shareholder letter says consumers “will be able to subscribe to both world-class streaming services at an even greater value” and that more details will come “in the coming months.” It has not given an exact launch date.
How much will the Paramount+ HBO Max bundle cost?
Skydance has not announced a price. The letter says only that the bundle will offer “an even greater value.” Any specific price you see before Skydance announces one is speculation.
How many subscribers do Paramount+ and HBO Max have together?
Skydance says Paramount+, HBO and HBO Max “combined reach 203 million aggregate subscribers worldwide.” Its footnote says the number uses each company’s historical subscriber definition, counts only HBO and HBO Max on the Warner Bros. Discovery side, and does not account for subscriber overlap. In other words, people who pay for both services are counted twice, so the number of unique subscribers is lower.
Are Paramount+ and HBO Max merging into one app?
That is the long-term direction. Skydance calls the bundle its “first step toward bringing together Paramount+ and HBO Max,” and says it aims to align the backend systems within a year of the 6 October 2026 closing, enabling a unified product. It has not announced a date for a single app.
Why is Skydance bundling the two services?
The letter says it sees an opportunity to grow reach and engagement, improve retention, and increase the revenue and profitability of its streaming services. The company also needs cost savings and cash flow to pay down $87 billion of gross debt from the Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
Who runs Skydance?
David Ellison is chairman and CEO and Ynon Kreiz is co-CEO, according to the Q3 2026 shareholder letter. The company changed its name from Paramount Skydance Corporation to Skydance Corporation on 6 October 2026, when it completed the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition.
Sources
Related on Page 21
This article is for general information only and is not investment advice. Figures are from Skydance’s Q3 2026 shareholder letter and SEC filings, as of 9 November 2026. Skydance has not announced a price for the bundle.
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