In New York and Los Angeles this week, entertainment lawyers finished paperwork on a deal that took months to close but will likely reshape viewing habits for years. Paramount Skydance has completed its $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, merging two of Hollywood's oldest studios into a single company called Skydance. The result brings together franchises as varied as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Yellowstone and Euphoria under one corporate banner — a combination that, on paper, looks like a dream catalogue for any streaming service. The reality for subscribers may be less generous.

HBO Max and Paramount+ are expected to be merged into one platform or bundle, and while some overlapping subscribers could see short-term savings, analysts argue that prices will likely climb as the new giant chases profitability. Skydance is carrying $80bn in debt from the merger, even as it targets $6bn in annual cost savings. Mike Proulx, a research director at Forrester, put it plainly, warning that bundling alone will not spare customers from future price increases. There is also a cultural obligation written into the deal.

To satisfy US state regulators who had resisted the merger, Skydance agreed to release a fixed number of films annually for five years: 30 movies a year for the first two years, rising to 32 for the remaining three — 156 films in total. This clause, unusual for a merger of this scale, suggests regulators are as concerned with preserving cinema culture as with market concentration.