Since the announcement Friday that Paramount has entered a merger agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a lot has been written about the deal bringing together two major streaming platforms,

Though not a done deal — there are still quite a few regulatory hurdles to clear, locally, federally and abroad — Paramount Skydance Warner Bros. Discovery (unofficial, but yikes) now has a fairly open path to try its unified hand at Hollywood domination.

One of the streaming wars’ stupidest bits of branding is going the way of Max. Amid screwing up its South Park deal and selling out its journalists, Paramount is abandoning the clunky “Paramount+ with SHOWTIME” moniker from its ad-free premium tier.

Paramount Global has quietly erased Showtime from the name of its top-tier streaming package. On June 23, Paramount informed subscribers that the name of its ad-free plan is no longer Paramount+ With Showtime — instead, it’s now called Paramount+ Premium.

It happened after Disney acquired Fox’s studio assets. It happened both before and after the Skydance- Paramount merger. Now, with Paramount poised to take control of Warner Bros. Discovery, it could happen again with two of the most prolific TV studio operations in the industry.

Say goodbye to Paramount+ With Showtime. Sort of. On Monday, Paramount Global formally dropped Showtime from the name of the streaming package and renamed it Paramount+ Premium. Paramount+ With Showtime was originally just an upgrade to Paramount+, but in ...