Netflix seems to have won the bidding war for Warner Bros. and HBO, that is, if regulators approve — there’s still a long way to go on that. The deal is worth almost $83 billion once Warner Bros. Discovery splits into two companies, which should happen sometime next year. The second company, Discovery Global will include CNN and other cable channels.

These days, Michael Smith subscribes to six streaming services. If the Netflix-Warner Bros-HBO deal goes through, the Carnegie Mellon professor would be down to five, which could have its upsides.

“It simplifies the marketplace place for consumers, versus a world where I've got six different streaming platforms I subscribe to and I can never remember which of my shows is on which platforms,” he said.

It could also mean one less subscription to pay for. 

“I pay $25 a month for Netflix and $20 a month for HBO Max, so $45. If Netflix raises its price by $5, that's a great deal for me,” Smith said.

It would certainly be less than paying for both. No one knows what Netflix will charge if it does absorb HBO and Warners Bros. Tim Hanlon at The Vertere Group said it might not be a good deal for customers.

“Usually, these kinds of mergers result in a bigger entity and a lot more market power to raise prices,” he said. “Netflix is not likely to keep their same pricing with a gigantic new library of content.”

There’s also the question of what happens to that gigantic, merged library of content. Charlotte Howell at Boston University said Netflix would likely have to make some choices.

“The cloud is not an endless available space in the air, it is server spaces and server farms that have to be cooled and powered, and that is expensive,” she said.

When Warner Bros. and Discovery merged, she said they started to remove a lot of streaming content.

“Westworld disappeared from HBO. HBO Max originals like the “Gordita Chronicles” got removed. A number of animated shows just disappeared from availability,” she said.

Plus, Howell said fewer streaming companies and studios means fewer options for pitching ideas.

“The less competition, the less different places there can be to find new voices, find homes for new movies, new types of movies, different genres, different kinds of stories,” she said. 

Which could mean that we as consumers might not get as wide a range of movies and shows to stream.