• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

One day after the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal closed under its new Skydance Corp. structure, analysts were considering what the deal will mean for brands in the near term -- especially scale and reach -- as well as the health of their high-profile streaming business.

“The question for brands is what all that reach delivers,” says Julie Clark, senior vice president of diversified markets, media & entertainment at TransUnion.

“Combining HBO Max, Paramount+, and CBS gives Skydance a lot of audience, but the brands we work with ask the same things of every channel: How much of it is unique, what drives awareness, what drives sales, and where the next dollar should go.”

“Answering that means measuring down to the individual consumer and tying it to marketing-mix modeling. That's the standard Skydance will be held to, and if it can meet it, the scale is worth buying," she adds.

Other analysts focused heavily on the scale of the two companies' high-profile, highly scrutinized streaming services.

With the new Skydance Corp. expected to look to combine and/or bundle the two services, one industry estimate from subscription researcher Antenna says there is significant overlap of service.

Analysts are questioning whether a combined service will limit overall market reach, casting doubt on whether these young businesses can withstand further disruption to their and tenuous growth

Antenna says there currently is significant overlap, with 7.5 million U.S. subscribers who have both services as of August 2026.

For Paramount+, this represents 22% of its total 34.5 million U.S. subscribers. It is even higher for HBO Max -- 27% of its 28.3 million U.S. subscribers.

Both services have relatively modest low "churn" rate -- subscribers who opt out on a monthly basis. The churn rate in August was 6.0% for Paramount+ and 4.5% for HBO Max.

Antenna estimates 12.8 million (37%) of Paramount+ total subscribers are ad-supported, with HBO Max at 12.9 million -- 46% of its total U.S. subscribers.