Skydance's first post-WBD earnings confirm HBO Max-Paramount+ bundle for early 2027

Mixed · 2Skydance reported third-quarter results on Monday 9 November, its first quarterly report since completing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in October. 1 2 Left · 2The quarter covers only the Paramount side of the business: the WBD deal closed after the period ended, so none of WBD's results are included. 1 3 Left · 2Revenue was about $7 billion (Variety gave $7.03 billion, up 5% year on year), and The Hollywood Reporter and Variety put net earnings at $73 million, or six cents per share, a swing from a loss a year earlier. 1 3

Centre · 1Deadline's earnings piece gives the net income figure as "$73 billion" alongside revenue of about $7 billion, which conflicts with the other outlets' $73 million. 2 Mixed · 2Direct-to-consumer revenue rose 11% to $2.5 billion, with Paramount+ revenue up 21% year on year; Deadline reported DTC profit of $225 million and ARPU up about 14%, and Variety reported subscriber growth of about 6%. 2 3 Mixed · 2Studios revenue rose 23% to $1.5 billion on licensing and content produced for third parties, while TV Media revenue fell 7% to $3 billion, with advertising down 8% and distribution or affiliate revenue down 5% on pay-TV subscriber erosion. 3 2

Mixed · 2In a shareholder letter, Skydance said an HBO Max-Paramount+ bundle will launch in early 2027, with more details on the bundle and streaming roadmap to come in the following months; pricing and an exact date have not been announced. 4 5 Centre · 2The services are expected to run separately at first, with CEO David Ellison saying the long-term plan is to bring them together; Deadline noted the bundle had been promoted before but its timing had not. 6 5 Mixed · 2Skydance also set out targets of at least $6 billion in synergies within three years and said it will hold an investor day in the first half of next year; The Hollywood Reporter listed savings of at least $2.2 billion from overhead and facilities, $1 billion from marketing, $1.2 billion from technology and $1.4 billion from procurement. 2 1

Centre · 1Deadline also reported a goal of cutting net leverage to 3.0x by the end of 2029 and noted the company launches with over $80 billion in debt, which some Wall Street analysts fear may be crippling while others, such as StoneX's Daniel Turnos, do not expect a default. 2 Left · 1The shareholder letter said the Warner Bros. film slate is expected to underperform in the fourth quarter, while Paramount Pictures is expected to double its output in 2026 with 15 releases. 3 Centre · 1Outlets give different values for the deal: Deadline's earnings piece says $81 billion, while its bundle story and Screen Rant say $110 billion. 2 6