How Canadians view HBO programming — and much else in the future battle for TV eyeballs north of the U.S. border — is up for grabs after Paramount Skydance, owner of Paramount+, won a bidding war to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, home to HBO Max.
Paramount’s David Ellison has talked about merging HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service after completing the WBD acquisition. That prospect, set to mark a major turning point for a fast-evolving Canadian TV landscape, could see local private broadcasters dependent on American imports to drive profits even more sidelined as U.S. streaming giants like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ increase their cross-border…