Paramount+ and HBO Max: One-App Plan Faces Antitrust Suit
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David Ellison plans to bundle Paramount+ and HBO Max in 2027 and merge them into one app; consumers are back in court to undo the $110 billion merger.
A group of consumers has sued Skydance again in an attempt to unwind the $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. The refiled complaint was lodged in California federal court and reported on November 13, 2026. It also seeks to reverse Skydance's $8 billion acquisition of Paramount, which closed before the larger deal.
At the center of the dispute is CEO David Ellison's plan to integrate Paramount+ and HBO Max. The company intends to launch a joint subscription bundle in 2027 and later fold both services into a single platform. The plaintiffs argue that the move eliminates choice between independent competitors and could raise the cost of a subscription. The company's business plan, by contrast, presents integration as a way to cut costs and sustain content spending.
The renewed legal challenge raises a question that matters directly to anyone paying for both services: what happens when two of Hollywood's flagship catalogs answer to a single owner?
What the lawsuit asks the court to do
The complaint returns after a setback in August. That month, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín dismissed the first version of the antitrust case, finding that the plaintiffs had not adequately shown the individual harm required to pursue their claims. The judge allowed them to file an amended complaint, which they have now done.
The new filing tries to address the weaknesses the judge identified. Instead of arguing only about market structure, the consumers focus on concrete effects of the completed deal: Paramount+ price increases, the organizational changes announced by the company and the streaming integration timetable.
The requests include:
- a jury trial and an order unwinding the $110 billion merger and the $8 billion Paramount–Skydance combination;
- alternatively, a divestiture of assets including HBO Max, CNN and Warner Bros.' studio operations;
- an order requiring Paramount+ and HBO Max to remain separate platforms;
- unspecified damages, plus the costs of the lawsuit and attorneys' fees.
The consumers allege they suffered economic harm from Paramount+ price increases imposed after the Skydance acquisition. That is an allegation by the plaintiffs and has not been tested on the merits.
Ellison's plan: a bundle in 2027, a single app later
Skydance's streaming strategy has two stated stages. The first is commercial: offering Paramount+ and HBO Max as a subscription bundle starting in 2027. The second is technical and deeper: moving both services onto the same backend infrastructure within the first year after the merger closes and, later, consolidating them into one consumer platform.
Ellison laid out the blueprint while presenting third-quarter results. The business logic is familiar: eliminate duplicate systems, cut technology costs and simplify operations in a sector where the cost of winning and keeping subscribers keeps rising. The company will also stop disclosing subscriber counts every quarter beginning with its next report.
For the plaintiffs, however, the same move that lowers corporate costs also reduces the variety of independent offers. They treat the bundle not as an isolated promotion but as the first visible step in a structural change.
“Before the acquisition, a consumer dissatisfied with the price or programming of Paramount+ could direct that consumer's subscription payment to HBO Max, an independently owned competitor, and vice versa. That choice between independent sellers has been eliminated.”
“The two services may retain distinct names and interfaces, but both now answer to one owner and its combined financial interests. The announced bundle is a concrete step toward implementing that change in competitive incentives.”
Excerpt from the complaint.
Why 203 million subscribers sit at the heart of the case
Together, Paramount+ and HBO Max reached roughly 203 million subscribers worldwide in the third quarter. Paramount+ accounts for 82.2 million; HBO Max and HBO, combined, for 120.8 million. Those bases are large enough that any change in pricing or packaging has a material effect both on the company's cash flow and on the budgets of households paying for both services.
The antitrust argument does not rest on the absolute size of the subscriber base but on the existence of alternatives. If a subscriber unhappy with one service's price can move to another independent competitor, that competitor acts as a market constraint. When both services share the same controller, that internal limit disappears — and that is precisely where the plaintiffs locate the harm.
The company disputes the premise by presenting integration as a response to an expensive, fragmented market. For Skydance, scale is what allows it to keep investing more than $30 billion a year in content across film, series, sports and news.
$6 billion in cuts and nearly $80 billion in debt
The lawsuit also uses the restructuring plan as evidence. The company aims to generate at least $6 billion in savings over three years, with about 30% of the total in the first year and 70% within two years. The target sits alongside nearly $80 billion in net debt, which, according to the plaintiffs, creates pressure to raise subscription revenue, eliminate overlapping operations and cut spending on independently produced programming.
| Savings area | Announced target |
|---|---|
| Consolidation of back-office and corporate functions | $2.2 billion |
| Unified technology, streaming and broadcast architecture | $1.4 billion |
| Procurement and vendor management | $1.4 billion |
| Marketing and media planning | $1 billion |
| Total projected over three years | $6 billion |
The math comes at a price. The company expects to spend $1.5 billion to $2 billion in 2027 to deliver the savings, with total transformation costs estimated at $4 billion. It also plans to lower leverage to three times EBITDA by 2029 and to hold an investor day in the first half of 2027.
The plaintiffs also point to the reorganization at Skydance Games, which affected at least 25 people, and to the departure of James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-chairs of DC Studios. For the consumers, cuts of that kind are evidence of an integration strategy that can erode creative capacity and reduce the number of films and series reaching audiences. Those are allegations by the plaintiffs and have not been established in court.
What changes for subscribers in Brazil
Paramount+ and HBO Max both operate in Brazil, with catalogs that overlap in part but not entirely. The company's announcements about the bundle contain no date, price or format confirmed specifically for the Brazilian market. The disclosed plan calls for launching the bundle in 2027 without detailing countries, and it should not be read as a local timetable.
Three points deserve attention from subscribers. The first is price: a bundle may cost less than two separate subscriptions, but it can also reshuffle plans and create a higher price anchor later. The second is catalog: technical integration does not guarantee that every title stays available, because licensing contracts and release windows follow their own rules. The third is experience: moving two apps onto a shared technical base usually comes with changes to profiles, downloads, recommendations and billing.
It is worth remembering that the merger has already closed. If the court grants the request, it can order a separation — a rare remedy with a slow effect. While the case moves forward, commercial and technical integration is likely to continue, which means subscribers will probably see changes before any final ruling.
What happens next
The case returns to court with a more detailed complaint and a clear target: David Ellison's streaming plan. Skydance had not responded to TheWrap's request for comment by the time this story was published.
The outcome depends on whether the court finds that consumers have shown enough harm to keep the case alive. If they have, the dispute could drag on for years, with testimony, internal documents and economic expert analysis. If the suit is dismissed again, the judicial path narrows and the debate shifts decisively to regulators and the market.
For people who pay for both services, the interval between those scenarios matters most. That is when bundles, prices and apps will change — regardless of what the court decides in the end. Follow our Pop Culture and TV & Streaming coverage for each stage. The background on the deal is in Paramount Completes Warner Acquisition and Reshapes Hollywood.
Sources: TheWrap, PYMNTS/CPI and Paramount's press release. Cover photo: Nielsoncaetanosalmeron / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
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