CEO David Ellison Intends To Combine AEW Streamer HBO Max With Paramount Plus

The sale of Warner Brothers Discovery took a massive turn last week, when Netflix, who had agreed to purchase WBD just a few months ago, officially withdrew their bid, allowing Paramount Skydance to swoop in and purchase WBD instead. While there are still many questions to be answered about the upcoming WBD/Paramount deal and the ramifications it will have on media, for wrestling fans, the concern remains AEW and how, or if, this merger will affect the promotion when it's time to negotiate a new media rights deal in 2027 or 2028.

In the meantime, however, one potential change could affect AEW's place on HBO Max, which currently houses the AEW video library and broadcasts AEW PPVs. According to Variety, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison recently revealed some of the plans Paramount has for WBD during an investors call. While he stressed wanting to keep certain WBD properties like HBO "independent," Ellison admitted there was plan was in place to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service some time down the road.

"As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct to consumer subscribers," Ellison said. "We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space. 

"At Paramount, by the middle of this year, we'll have completed the consolidation of our three services under one unified stack, and you can see us taking a similar approach to this platform going forward. And we think the combined offering, and given the amount of content and what we can do from the tech side, really will put us in a position to be able to compete with the most scaled players in DTC."