Paramount’s ongoing acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has been one of the biggest media stories of 2026. Although the plans are currently facing legal challenges and are on hold for the next two weeks, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan believes the merger will benefit AEW as a media partner.
Khan discussed various topics, including Paramount’s acquisition of WBD, during an interview with Brian Sozzi on the Power Players program.
Khan said, “Paramount now has come in to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery, and I think that’s fantastic. I’m so excited about it. You asked me about the opportunities for AEW, and I think that’s a huge opportunity for AEW because we’ve premiered our pay-per-views on HBO Max, and we have a great audience. And now with Paramount making a deal to acquire HBO Max, for me as a showrunner that’s worked at Warner Brothers for over seven years now, I have to say I’m very excited about it and really welcoming the ownership from Paramount.”
On what makes him excited about it:
“It’s the ability to first of all bring in more subscribers. I think HBO Max and Paramount are going to be much stronger and far more competitive together in the streaming space than they are separately, and they both have a great base. But in the world of streaming together, I think it’s a much more competitive company. It’s not going to be anything resembling a monopoly in streaming, because it’s a hard fight out there. But together, I think we’ll have more viewers with Paramount, and we’ll be able to sell pay-per-views into more homes, stream the show into more homes, and we’ll have a bigger future.”
On the company’s PPV growth on HBO Max:
“Last year we launched our pay-per-views on HBO Max and also simulcasting streaming our TV shows on HBO Max. And this is really exciting for us because with Paramount coming in, we’re at an all-time high on our pay-per-views, and our HBO Max pay-per-view business continues to grow. Our Double or Nothing event that we had in May was a massive success. And that’s actually the seven-year anniversary of the very first AEW show. And as a live event here in New York at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, we sold every ticket. It was the biggest gate we’ve ever had for Double or Nothing in all these years, the original AEW show. And as a pay-per-view, it was the biggest one we’ve done yet on HBO Max. And we’ve seen continued growth. I think the three consecutive pay-per-views all set the record on HBO Max. So, it’s a great time for Paramount to come in and then add more homes for us uh when this goes through.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
