Tag: Paramount

About a month ago, Hollywood was shaken when the announcement was made that the Ellison family backed Paramount Skydance’s plans to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery. If the deals go through, Paramount ($18.6B) and David Ellison will become the kings of Hollywood, sitting on Warner Bros.’ ($42.3B) valuable IP.

In the early hours of October 12, it was reported that Warner Bros. had rejected Paramount Skydance’s acquisition price, stating it was too low per share.

According to Bloomberg, Paramount’s initial bid of $20 per share was not attractive to Warner Bros. Discovery despite its stock price being around $17 on Friday’s market close.

David Ellison will allegedly re-evaluate his bid, looking for additional funds and backing while taking his bid directly to WBD shareholders.

This will be Ellison’s second big move in Hollywood this year. Earlier this year, David Ellison’s Skydance completed its merger with Paramount at $8 billion. Skdance Media is now the parent company to Nickelodeon, MTV, CBS and more, including properties like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek.

Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to split into two companies (Warner Bros. the Studio and Discovery Global for all the TV properties); companies like Paramount, Skydance, and Netflix are in a bidding war to acquire all of its properties, with more expected to announce their interest in the coming months.

Starting April 30th, subscribers to Paramount Media Networks‘s Showtime streaming app, which was launched in 2015, will no longer be able to access its streaming service.

If you use Showtime or enjoy its content, all hope is not lost. To access Showtime services, opt into the Paramount+ With Showtime subscription plan.

According to Showtime’s Help Center Page: “Now that subscribers can access their favourite Showtime programs on Paramount+ by subscribing to the Paramount+ with Showtime plan, the Showtime streaming service will shut down on April 30, 2024…Current Showtime streaming subscribers will continue to have access to the Showtime streaming service until it is shut down on April 30, 2024.”

The Showtime cable channel is still available but has Paramount+ With Showtime since January. The Showtime streaming app has been in existence for almost 9 years. The Paramount+ With Showtime ad-free streaming package was launched in June 2023, alongside a price hike from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.

The move with Paramount’s Showtime is not the first; Warner Bros. Discovery had a similar experience. When Max was launched, it merged with HBO to become HBO Max and killed off services like HBO Now and HBO Go; it was later rebranded as Max in 2023.