According to Variety, two media companies, one based in France, called Canal+, and the other, Warner Bros. Discovery, signed a multi-year, multi-country agreement overseas to expand HBO Max. This is ironic because WBD recently declined a deal with Paramount and is currently awaiting approval for an acquisition by Netflix.

Variety writes that this deal is very important for the two companies’ streaming services because of the renewal in countries like Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, just to name a few places overseas. Canal+ is soon to expand to Belgium and Austria, and even more countries very soon too. HBO Max networks being renewed on the cable and streaming provider include Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and CNN International.

In Africa, the thematic channels that will be renewed are CNN International, Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Porto, Cartoonito, Cartoonito Porto, Discovery Channel, Discovery Family, Real Time, ID, TLC, HGTV, Travel, TNT Africa, and Food Network, via Variety.

According to Variety, these new deals and negotiations continue plans between Canal+ and Warner Bros. Discovery that started in 2024. These prior plans included HBO Max available in certain Canal+ packages, and films arriving on streaming six months after their theatrical release.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos reassured that their purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery would not disturb these plans for Canal+ subscribers. “Our intentions when we buy Warner Bros. will be to continue to release Warner Bros. studio movies in theaters with the traditional windows,” Sarandos told Canal+ CEO and chair Maxime Saada via Variety. “Then those movies would flow through the Canal+ output deal. That’s very exciting for us.”

A potential Netflix-WBD merger comes mere months after David Ellison’s Skydance Media purchased Paramount. Since this acquisition, many changes have occurred at CBS proper, including a new editor-in-chief at CBS News. Paramount and Netflix were in a bidding war for WBD before Netflix triumphed with an 82 billion dollar offer.