One More Time With Feeling: Paramount-WBD Merger Opponents Aim To Slow Walk Skydance’s Paramount+ & HBO Max Consolidation

Five streaming subscribers have filed a renewed court motion seeking to keep HBO Max and Paramount+ operating separately while their antitrust case proceeds. The merger has already closed, so they are asking the judge to preserve the possibility of a future remedy, including divestiture, by preventing Skydance from integrating the services and related businesses in the meantime.

The proposed order would require separate operations and records for each streaming business, and would bar eliminating either service or forcing subscribers into a replacement platform. Paramount Skydance completed its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery on 30 September, and David Ellison has said the services are expected to combine after a period of bundling. A hearing on the subscribers’ request is sought for 3 December; the merged company carries about $80 billion in debt.