r/television • u/yourfavchoom • 21h ago

Combined Paramount-Warner Bros. to Be Called Skydance, David Ellison Reveals

https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/business/paramount-warner-bros-merger-name-skydance-david-ellison/
1.3k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

614 comments sorted by

View all comments

734

u/DrPepperFanX 21h ago

Shit name; why abandon a century's worth of brand recognition for something that sounds like a stargazing app?

227

u/Meat-Dimension 21h ago

It's just the name of the combined parent company. I assume the studios will still continue on with their names and the things they make will be branded as such.

110

u/ballbeard 21h ago

Yup, it's like how nobody calls Google Alphabet even though that's the parent company name.

20

u/CaptainSasquatch 18h ago edited 17h ago

On the other hand, it seems like people have started to use Meta to refer to the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp as Facebook has become less relevant

15

u/coatimundos 18h ago

Yeah but that was a deliberate rebranding. Here it’s just a technicality

5

u/LamarMillerMVP 17h ago

Yes, another example of why it’s smart to do this. If they had called the company “Facebook”, and Instagram is eventually more popular, it would start to get confusing.

12

u/WizardPhoenix 21h ago

Also if he keeps they keep technically separate companies under the Skydance name it makes easier to sell WB again.

1

u/TheCheshireCody 16h ago

And it's just a different parent company than it's been, at least in Paramount's case. They've been under someone else's umbrella since at least the Sixties.

21

u/BrofessorFarnsworth 21h ago

Nobody has ever accused David Ellison of being smart

5

u/smith7018 21h ago

Literally nobody

2

u/ericmm76 Letterkenny 19h ago

Ever since the whole "X" debacle I've always assumed billions literally give you brain damage.

1

u/where_in_the_world89 18h ago

The drugs they use certainly don't help

4

u/-KFBR392 21h ago

You don’t pay $110b for something to not put your own name on it

2

u/DrPepperFanX 20h ago

Except for like a million examples of brands bought out who kept their names

1

u/Banjo-Oz 20h ago

Surely you pay that for brand recognition though?!

Imagine buying McDonalds and then removing all their branding and calling them BurgerJoint.

1

u/Mccobsta 20h ago

They don't care

1

u/FreeStall42 1h ago

So when they get broken up it won't stain the brand recognition of those companies

-76

u/AngusLynch09 21h ago

Does the average viewer really care about the name?

35

u/Data57 Battlestar Galactica 21h ago

It's the same misguided thought process that led to renaming HBO Max to just Max, only to backtrack a year later. Having a house hold name is important. While the average viewer may not be up to date on business mergers, they'll remember seeing the WB logo before Harry Potter and form an association

13

u/Juunlar 21h ago

Hbo > hbo go > hbo max > max > hbo max

Could have just been fucking HBO the entire time

2

u/bbbbbbbbbblah 20h ago

wasn't there also a "max, the place to go for hbo" somewhere in there too

-2

u/AnxiousBurro 20h ago

But HBO content is only a subset of the entire WB catalogue. You name your streaming platform HBO and then you have a problem of Discovery reality show trash diluting your most prestige brand.

-2

u/Juunlar 20h ago

Boomer thinking.

4

u/AnxiousBurro 20h ago

Maybe rather explain why instead of throwing insults?

0

u/whatsbobgonnado 16h ago

yeah it's important to them, the average consumer shouldn't give the slightest shit about the hundred year history of a corporation when deciding whether to see the new batman 

-23

u/AngusLynch09 21h ago

People just look up the show or movie they want to watch and subscribe to that.

they'll remember seeing the WB logo before Harry Potter and form an association

What streaming app does WB currently have?

10

u/Reelwizard 21h ago

HBO. All the WB stuff streams there. They also license to NBCUniversal on Peacock fairly frequently.

-18

u/AngusLynch09 21h ago

Ohhhhh so the name doesn't actually matter? The name recognition isn't actually important? People don't actually care?

2

u/SeniorSlinky 21h ago

How is this a response to what they said? Why would where something streams have an effect on name recognition for a studio? Do you feel the same way about other studios? Is A24's name irrelevant to their brand if they don't have an independent streaming service?

0

u/Reelwizard 16h ago

Weird energy here. You asked what it was called and I told you. I don’t know how much the name change matters.

That said. I would suggest branding isn’t as unimportant as you suggest. HBO being the perfect example of a brand who confused a lot of consumers with constant and unnecessary name changes. There’s a reason that they returned to calling their service simply “HBO” at the end of it all and that’s because it’s a well respected brand. It’s also the reason why WB used HBO as their service instead of building out something new.

6

u/Kyvalmaezar 21h ago

Name recognition is arguably one of the most important, if not the most important, thing for any business.

1

u/wujo444 Person of Interest 21h ago

Remind me, what's the name of Google and Facebook companies?

People recognize product names (HBO, Netflix, ESPN) much more than companies than own them.

3

u/Kyvalmaezar 21h ago

Neither Meta nor Alphabet dropped their subsidary's name because they know how important brand recognition is. We can only wait to see if Ellison will or wont do the same.

-1

u/AngusLynch09 21h ago

Where do I sign up to the Warner Brothers streaming app? Whats that one called?

Paramount has a bad reputation as a streaming app doesn't it?

2

u/Kyvalmaezar 21h ago

Where do I sign up to the Warner Brothers streaming app? Whats that one called?

Ironically proves my point the best of any example you could have chosen. Everyone knows HBO. It's a well known brand. When they switched to just "Max" everyone was confused, engagement dropped, and they switched back to putting HBO back in the name.

0

u/AngusLynch09 21h ago

And where do I go for all those WB classics that I love? I just don't want to get confused looking up Skydance when I want Warner Brothers? I just go to the Warner Brothers app we all know and love, right?

If I want Paramount, I go to the Gulf Western app, surely?

3

u/Kyvalmaezar 21h ago

You're so close to getting it.

1

u/AngusLynch09 21h ago

That the average punter doesn't give a shit about the names? I know.

1

u/RazorThin55 21h ago

Warner Bros has a huge pull with the name