From The Verge: SkyShowtime, a European streaming service jointly operated by Comcast and Paramount, has swooped in to acquire the exclusive streaming rights to 21 local HBO Max shows across the continent, the streaming service announced today. Rights to the shows became available after HBO Max halted its original programming plans in Europe last year in attempts to save money. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 21 shows include three brand-new European series that have completed production but which are yet to air (ID, The Winner, and Warszawianka) as well as preexisting shows like Lust and Kamikaze. Upcoming shows will be branded as “SkyShowtime Originals” when they release. Existing shows were removed from HBO Max as part of last year’s restructuring so they could be licensed out to other platforms. In total, SkyShowtime says the deal covers 168 episodes and over 150 hours of programming, significantly bulking out the nascent streaming service’s library of local content.
The deal is part of attempts by HBO Max’s new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, to find around $3.5 billion in cost savings after its merger in April last year. HBO Max only launched in select European markets months earlier in September 2021, replacing a patchwork of preexisting streaming services like HBO Go and HBO Nordic. And further changes are still to come, with Warner Bros. Discovery intending to replace HBO Max entirely in 2023 with a new service based on the tech stack of Discovery Plus.
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