The Paramount-HBO Max Pitch Scramble: A Sellers’ Guide

I’ve got a new TV Sellers’ Guide for you, this time with a focus on Paramount+ and HBO Max, plus CBS and HBO, which are all set to land under one corporate roof with the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. While Paramount CEO David Ellison’s proposed deal appears close to clearing federal regulatory hurdles, it has a fresh legal challenge ahead as Reuters and Bloomberg both reported Friday that several state attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta, will sue to block the merger.

Assuming the deal does go through, though, the town is looking at the largest combination of streamers since streaming became a thing: Ellison has promised to merge Paramount+ and its 79 million subscribers and HBO Max and its 140 million subscribers into one service, making it a legitimate contender to Netflix’s 325 million subs worldwide. It will also lead to a “Sophie’s choice” of leadership woes, pitting HBO’s Casey Bloys against Paramount+’s Cindy Holland to lead streaming, as my colleague Lesley Goldberg wrote last week. 

For now, talking to agents and producers, there’s a wait-and-see attitude to bringing pitches for new programming to HBO and HBO Max, since their parent company WBD may soon be gobbled up. Mergers mean regime changes, and regime changes mean that any development in the pipeline is at risk of being overturned. WBD showcased a cable TV-heavy, executive-light presentation during the Upfronts last month that didn’t even bother bringing up HBO Max until the last 15 minutes. A lot of chatter afterward boiled down to, “Looks fine, but so what? Everything’s about to change.” 

Yet HBO/HBO Max aren’t pausing development in the way Paramount did in the period ahead of its acquisition by Skydance. But the WBD platforms’ appetites do seem limited, sellers tell me. (A source close to WBD pushes back on this idea and says it’s business as usual.) Meanwhile, after about two years of being a frozen asset, streamer Paramount+ has been open for business, much to the delight of the town. 

If you’ve been reading my Sellers’ Guide series for the last couple of years, you know I wouldn’t normally look to an investment bank confab for signals about a streamer’s programming appetites. But at the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference a couple weeks ago, new Paramount Skydance CFO Dennis Cinelli offered a backdoor look into what a combined Paramount+/HBO Max streamer will look like. 

“As we think about international, you’re seeing us really make sure we can leverage both the global portfolio of content we have — sports being a good one, all the premium content also is really interesting, like the CBS procedurals are really good in international markets,” he said on May 13. “But we’ll add in local where needed, right? One of the reasons why we really feel good about the competitive nature of the deal is we’re going to be another local buyer in these markets for creators.” 

Today in my spring Sellers’ Guide, I’ll break down what to know when pitching P+ and HBO Max now, including: 

• The Paramount and WBD execs driving programming now, and which are considered MVPs by top agents
• The genres P+ wants to complement the Taylor Sheridan universe, including “female-driven thrillers” and more
• What’s on CBS’ development slate, and what it’s still buying 
• Which CBS Studios’ overalls take up the most network hours
• Why Paramount+ is “nixing” comedy for now
• What HBO drama execs are looking for beyond IP
• Why HBO Max is “a really tough place to sell” — unless the pitch follows this certain model
• Merger questions looming for all these teams