Paramount-WBD Side Note: Merger Ends Premium TV’s Original Heated Rivalry, Brings Together HBO & Showtime; “It Warms My Heart,” Robert Greenblatt Says

Since the announcement Friday that Paramount has entered a merger agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a lot has been written about the deal bringing together two major streaming platforms, HBO Max and Paramount+ (They will eventually become one, Paramount CEO David Ellison said today); two major film studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount; and two […] (L-R): 'Game of Thrones, 'The Sopranos', 'Homeland', 'Dexter' HBO, Showtime Since the announcement Friday that Paramount has entered a merger agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a lot has been written about the deal bringing together two major streaming platforms, HBO Max and Paramount+ (They will eventually become one, Paramount CEO David Ellison said today); two major film studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount; and two major TV studios, Warner Bros. Television and CBS Studios. The acquisition putting WBD’s HBO and Paramount’s Showtime under the same corporate roof has gotten little or no attention. That is because Showtime over the past several years has become a dramatically scaled down version of its former self. Illustrating how differently the fortunes of the two pay TV networks have been trending, as WBD restored the “HBO” in streamer’s HBO Max’s name last May, Paramount a month later dropped “Showtime” from the title of its streamer’ highest subscription tier, which was renamed from Paramount+ With Showtime to Paramount Premium. Watch on Deadline Related Stories News Paramount-Warner Bros Merger: Hollywood Wonders How Combo Will Pull Off 30 Theatrical Films A Year