How HBO’s Casey Bloys Wound Up With the Keys to Paramount-Warner Bros.’ Streaming Empire, and What’s to Come

In the end, Casey Bloys knew he was holding all the cards.

As the industry continued to speculate about whether the HBO boss or Paramount’s Cindy Holland would wind up with control of the two companies’ soon-to-be-merged streaming behemoth, in recent weeks the momentum seemed to be on Bloys’ side.

So when Paramount direct-to-consumer chair Holland told colleagues Tuesday that she would be leaving, her staff at the company was disappointed — having seen firsthand the exec’s tremendous impact inside the company over the past year — but not surprised.

Bloys had recently become a bit bullish on the merger. As he made the rounds last month during Emmys weekend, the chairman of HBO and HBO Max content wasn’t shy in sharing his hope that Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery would soon come together. That’s because the alternative, he told industry folk, might be more dire.

The uncertainty of a deal, which at that point was still facing a lawsuit from California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state AGs, was having a negative impact on business, and it needed to be resolved, Bloys said. But his pro-deal sentiment was a bit of a break from the hope…

Original source: https://variety.com/v/tv/