Oh yes, the merger of HBO Max and Paramount+ will engender soooo much competition.
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Oh yes, the merger of HBO Max and Paramount+ will engender soooo much competition. What a load of hooey. If this doesn't turn out to be the most textbook example of enshittification, I'll eat my hat. From WaPo:
"Paramount Skydance will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service, David Ellison, the company’s CEO, said on a Monday call with investors.
“As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Ellison said. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/03/02/hbo-max-paramount-streaming-service/
@briankrebs Not sure if I’d approve this if I were involved, but I’d at least put a requirement that anything they have on their service is made available on at least one competing independent (inter?)national streaming service without view restrictions at the same time. And this would be required for at least 10 years. Extreme fines minimum fines if not followed. Additional terms and conditions would be there as well.
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@FranceskaMann @briankrebs Bingo. Same with us. When Colbert goes, so go we.
@darren @FranceskaMann @briankrebs I’ve already left CBS. I’m going to have to find another way to watch the Young and the Restless. It’s hard to give up a 50 year habit. My hubby is still watching Stephen Colbert, until he’s gone.
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Oh yes, the merger of HBO Max and Paramount+ will engender soooo much competition. What a load of hooey. If this doesn't turn out to be the most textbook example of enshittification, I'll eat my hat. From WaPo:
"Paramount Skydance will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service, David Ellison, the company’s CEO, said on a Monday call with investors.
“As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Ellison said. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/03/02/hbo-max-paramount-streaming-service/
@briankrebs this like all major media mergers is stupid, ie ATT Time Warner, AOL Time Warner
All this will do is make consumer prices higher, reduce competition, pad the finance sheets so the stock price will rise, major investors will get a payout; and when the new company eventually becomes unprofitable and loses billions of dollars, the company will write off the loss on their books thus rising the stock price again.
Only the customers lose out.
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@darren @FranceskaMann @briankrebs I’ve already left CBS. I’m going to have to find another way to watch the Young and the Restless. It’s hard to give up a 50 year habit. My hubby is still watching Stephen Colbert, until he’s gone.
@Beachbum @darren @FranceskaMann @briankrebs
Have no fear. Colbert will turn up somewhere. "The Young and the Restless", hmm... -
@darren @FranceskaMann @briankrebs I’ve already left CBS. I’m going to have to find another way to watch the Young and the Restless. It’s hard to give up a 50 year habit. My hubby is still watching Stephen Colbert, until he’s gone.
@Beachbum @FranceskaMann @briankrebs There's always ota TV for those must see football games and soaps.
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Oh yes, the merger of HBO Max and Paramount+ will engender soooo much competition. What a load of hooey. If this doesn't turn out to be the most textbook example of enshittification, I'll eat my hat. From WaPo:
"Paramount Skydance will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service, David Ellison, the company’s CEO, said on a Monday call with investors.
“As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Ellison said. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/03/02/hbo-max-paramount-streaming-service/
@briankrebs What kind of hat do you prefer?
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@briankrebs What kind of hat do you prefer?
@AAKL the small, edible kind.
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@AAKL the small, edible kind.
@briankrebs Sounds like backtracking to me
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We have to stop rewarding these billionaires for their bad moves. I've always been quick to boycott. It disheartens me how few people are.
@FranceskaMann @briankrebs @darren right now, I’m boycotting everything except Costco. Everything!
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@Beachbum @FranceskaMann @briankrebs There's always ota TV for those must see football games and soaps.
@darren @Beachbum @FranceskaMann @briankrebs
Related, the Buffalo Bills are cutting out broadcast radio for their games next season.
Can broadcast TV be next?
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@darren @Beachbum @FranceskaMann @briankrebs
Related, the Buffalo Bills are cutting out broadcast radio for their games next season.
Can broadcast TV be next?
@w_b @Beachbum @darren @briankrebs
Alternative media & podcasts can fill the void.
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@w_b @Beachbum @darren @briankrebs
Alternative media & podcasts can fill the void.
@FranceskaMann @Beachbum @darren @briankrebs
Sure, those work if you are in range of cellular data coverage. Not always the case.
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Oh yes, the merger of HBO Max and Paramount+ will engender soooo much competition. What a load of hooey. If this doesn't turn out to be the most textbook example of enshittification, I'll eat my hat. From WaPo:
"Paramount Skydance will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service, David Ellison, the company’s CEO, said on a Monday call with investors.
“As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Ellison said. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/03/02/hbo-max-paramount-streaming-service/
@briankrebs This is just online cable at this point.
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Oh yes, the merger of HBO Max and Paramount+ will engender soooo much competition. What a load of hooey. If this doesn't turn out to be the most textbook example of enshittification, I'll eat my hat. From WaPo:
"Paramount Skydance will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service, David Ellison, the company’s CEO, said on a Monday call with investors.
“As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Ellison said. “We think that really positions us to compete with the leaders in the space.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/03/02/hbo-max-paramount-streaming-service/
@briankrebs The US media landscape is being Orbanified in plain sight.
It's just extra insult to injury that failsons like Ellison and Murdoch jr. are being deployed for this purpose. It's like "yup, we can not only explicitly tilt the media to be more plutocrat-friendly (because the public aren't both losing out AND saying "please sir, I'd like another", apparently), we can specifically put our dynastic hellspawn at the helm while we do it."
