In September 2026, the month before Paramount closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount+, HBO, Max, HBO Max, Pluto TV and Discovery+ together held 21.35% of brand mentions on ChatGPT and 21.11% on Google AI Overviews, measured across thirteen streaming brands. Second to Netflix on both. Three of those six are HBO-related brand names, and the two engines rank them differently: ChatGPT mentions HBO most often, Google AI Overviews mentions Max most often.

What this measures: BrightEdge AI Hyper Cube data with share of brand mentions inside AI answers, calculated as each brand's mentions divided by total mentions across the top thirteen streaming brands measured, in the United States, on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. It does not measure clicks, traffic, subscribers or revenue. See Technical Methodology.

The AI visibility position Skydance inherited

Skydance has a potential brand problem through its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which closed on 6 October 2026. The deal brings together a streaming portfolio with some naming consistency issues.

Table 1. Share of brand mentions across thirteen streaming brands, September 2026, United States. The six are Paramount+, HBO, Max, HBO Max, Pluto TV and Discovery+. Source: BrightEdge AI Hyper Cube.

Netflix leads the six combined by 6.58 points on ChatGPT and 7.12 points on Google AI Overviews. Skydance, read as one portfolio, is a clear second. But read as the engines actually report it, it is six separate brand names, none of which reaches 7%.

Three HBO-related names, two engines that rank them differently

Three of the six are HBO-related brand names: HBO, Max and HBO Max. HBO is a channel and a programming brand as well as a streaming label, so the engines may be answering about different things under each name. What the data shows is which name each engine uses.

Table 2. Share of brand mentions for the three HBO-related names, September 2026, United States. Source: BrightEdge AI Hyper Cube.

ChatGPT mentions HBO most often, at 1.59 times the next of the three. Google AI Overviews mentions Max most often, at 1.07 times. Neither engine collapses the three into one, and the two do not agree on which name they reach for.

Older brand names can remain prominent well after a rebrand. HBO Max launched in 2020, was renamed Max in 2023 to signal a broader mix of programming, and went back to HBO Max in July 2025. For HBO Max, our September data shows that the former Max name continues to appear frequently in AI answers: more than a year after the name returned, Google AI Overviews still mentions Max more than HBO Max, and ChatGPT has the two at near parity.

Skydance should consider this learning as it looks at consolidating further. Tracking the same three names through a branding change is what would show how visibility moves. This research does not establish what any one name would be worth after such a change.

Much like TV ratings, live events dominate AI conversations

Table 3. Share of top-prompt volume by category, September 2026. Prompt-mix analysis by BrightEdge Professional Services on the top 60 to 100 prompts by estimated volume per engine, categorized by keyword rules. Read as indicative.

Among the top prompts analyzed by estimated volume, live events (prompts like "What channel is the F1 race on today?") lead on both engines, followed by where to watch (prompts like "Where to watch Euphoria"). Despite the big news surrounding the acquisition, ownership questions were rarely seen, accounting for under 1%. These shares describe that sample rather than every question put to either engine.

What We Analyzed

BrightEdge measured brand mentions across thirteen streaming brands in AI answers on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, in the United States, for September 2026. No prompt filter was applied. The six Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery streaming brands were then compared against each other and against the rest of the field, and the three HBO-family labels were compared separately on each engine.

Data Collected

Key Finding

Measured. The six brands together held 21.35% of brand mentions on ChatGPT and 21.11% on Google AI Overviews, second to Netflix on both. Within the HBO family, ChatGPT ranked HBO first at 5.52%, HBO Max second at 3.47% and Max third at 3.11%. Google AI Overviews ranked Max first at 5.05%, HBO second at 4.70% and HBO Max third at 2.33%.

Inferred. Brands are complicated and persistent. A company answering to several brand names is treated as several brands by both engines, and an older name can stay prominent well after a rebrand. More than a year after HBO Max returned to its original name, Google AI Overviews still mentions Max more frequently. That shows why marketers need to track both current and former brand names. It is not a finding about HBO specifically, and we were unable to identify a clear reason why one would be captured vs. the other, nor how persistent these kinds of discussions are.

How that affects your measurement

Share of mentions is calculated per brand name. An engine that answers with "Max" records a mention for Max, and an engine that answers with "HBO" records one for HBO. Nothing joins them without coordinating brands and sub-brands.

That has two consequences for any company with more than one name.

Each name is measured separately, so a dashboard filtered to one of them shows part of the position rather than all of it. The three HBO-related names individually range from 2.33% to 5.52%; together they are 12.10% on ChatGPT and 12.08% on Google AI Overviews.

The sum is a valid figure, and it answers a specific question. Because the metric counts mention instances, adding the shares gives the group's share of all mention instances across the thirteen brands. It is not the share of prompts in which at least one of those names appears.

What Marketers Need to Know

Use brand grouping to create a consistent definition of who your brand is. A short name, a legal name and a product name are three brands to an AI engine. Create a standard definition of a Grouped Brand to represent all your brand names.

Grouped Brands Settings in BrightEdge AI Catalyst. Brand matching groups any sub-brand that starts with the parent name, and additional sub-brands are selected per parent brand so that every name a company answers to is measured as one.

Compare the engines against each other. ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews ranked the same three names differently here. A reading taken from one engine is half the picture.

Record the baseline before any branding change. A rename, a merge or a retirement can only be assessed against a measured starting position. Put the current names on record first, then track the same set through the change.

Work on the questions that carry the volume. Among the top prompts analyzed by estimated volume, live events lead on both engines. An evergreen how-to-watch page answering time, channel and stream covers the largest category in that sample.

Technical Methodology

What Is Still Open

How Skydance handles the merger remains to be seen. The earlier Warner Bros.-Discovery merger left many brand names in place. With three major streaming platforms (HBO Max, Paramount+ and Discovery+) and new leadership, branding decisions, as we have shown, can have long-running implications for how you show up in AI.

• Whether the position moves after the close, which only post-merger data can show.
• Whether the engine disagreement holds. One month on two engines in one market is a snapshot. A second month would show whether ChatGPT's preference for HBO and Google AI Overviews' preference for Max are stable.
• Whether the conversation mix holds. The prompt-mix categories come from a single month's top prompts and have not been reproduced independently.

Key Takeaways

Frequently Asked Questions

Which streaming brands are the biggest in AI?

Across thirteen streaming brands in the United States, Netflix led on both engines, at 27.93% of brand mentions on ChatGPT and 28.23% on Google AI Overviews. The six Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery names together held 21.35% and 21.11%, ahead of Apple TV, Hulu and Disney+.

Do ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews treat HBO, Max and HBO Max as the same brand?

Neither does. Both engines record a mention against the specific name used, so the three are measured as three brands. The engines also reach for different ones: ChatGPT mentions HBO most often, at 1.59 times the next of the three, while Google AI Overviews mentions Max most often, at 1.07 times. HBO is also a channel and a programming brand, not only a streaming label, so the three are related names rather than interchangeable ones.

How often does Google AI Overviews mention Max versus HBO Max after the rebrand?

In September 2026, Google AI Overviews mentioned Max in 5.05% of brand mentions across thirteen streaming brands, against 2.33% for HBO Max. The service had returned to the HBO Max name in July 2025, more than a year earlier. ChatGPT had the two closer together, at 3.11% for Max and 3.47% for HBO Max. This research records that the older name is still in use on both engines. It does not establish why, and a single month cannot show how long a name change generally takes to register.

How should a merged company measure AI visibility through a brand name change?

Record the position of every name involved before the change, on each engine, then measure the same set afterwards. This research is an example of the first half: September 2026 positions for all six names, on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, taken before the deal closed. It does not forecast what any name would be worth after a change, and no measurement taken before one can.

Does this research measure the effect of the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger?

No. Every figure is September 2026 and the deal closed on 6 October 2026, so this describes the position Skydance inherited. October data is not yet available. The first post-merger read is the one that can show movement.

What do people ask AI about streaming services, among the highest-volume prompts?

Among the top 60 to 100 prompts by estimated volume on each engine, live events lead at 65% on ChatGPT and 73% on Google AI Overviews. Where to watch a specific title follows at 15% and 22%. Questions about who owns which service account for under 1% on both. These shares describe that sample rather than every question put to either engine.

What does share of brand mentions measure, and what does it not?

It is a brand's mentions divided by total mentions across the brands measured, inside AI answers. It does not measure clicks, traffic, subscribers or revenue, it does not establish why a brand was mentioned, and it does not predict what a name would be worth after a branding change. It depends on the brand set chosen, so a different set gives different shares.

Source: BrightEdge AI Hyper Cube. Share of brand mentions across thirteen streaming brands, United States, September 2026, on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Deal facts from Axios, 6 October 2026. Brand name history from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

More from this series

See the rest of the Weekly AI & Search Insights series.

On 16 September 2026, Product Grid listings stopped appearing in all 14 EEA markets BrightEdge tracks. A Comparison Sites section began appearing in the same markets on the same day. In the EEA a retailer's free product listings run through one comparison shopping service. Google Shopping appeared in the new section 16 to 35 times as often as the next-largest service. That is across Germany, France, Spain and Italy, on tracked queries from 9 to 29 September.

Which service represents your domain is quick to establish. It sits in the Merchant Center CSS dashboard, it costs nothing to check, and it decides which service places your free listings. Feed quality and your relationships with third-party catalogs sit alongside it.

What this measures: This counts how many tracked keywords display each section. It does not show whether a given merchant's products appear inside it, and it does not measure clicks. The markets are the 14 EEA markets BrightEdge tracks, which are 13 EU countries plus Norway. Other EEA markets exist and were not measured.

The switch happened on one day, in every tracked market

Product Grid listings stopped appearing in all 14 tracked EEA markets after 15 September. The Comparison Sites section began on 16 September, the same day in every one of them. Product Grid stayed flat throughout in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, which sit outside the change.

Google removed the grid to comply with a European Commission ruling of 23 July 2026 under the Digital Markets Act. The ruling found that Google favored its own shopping, hotel, transport and sports results, and fined it EUR 460 million. Reuters reported a 60-day compliance window, and the September change landed inside it.

Google disagrees with the ruling. The change is a compliance step. Compliance does not establish that this particular layout has to remain, so treat the current arrangement as the position in the measured window.

One setting decides which service places your free listings

In the EEA, one comparison shopping service represents a merchant domain for free product listings. Google documents this per domain. Several services can be used for paid campaigns, and one carries the free listings. This rule predates the September change. What changed on 16 September is the place those listings appear.

Google Shopping appeared in the Comparison Sites section 16 to 35 times as often as the next-largest service. That is across Germany, France, Spain and Italy, on tracked queries from 9 to 29 September 2026. 71% of Comparison Sites appearances landed in result positions one to four, from 61% in France to 76% in Spain and Italy. It is premium space.

What the multiple counts. The 16 to 35 times comparison measures how often each service appears in the section. It does not measure an individual merchant's product visibility or performance. BrightEdge has not tested what changes when a merchant switches service. Google Shopping led the section across those three weeks. Read your own selection before deciding whether to change it.

Confirm which CSS represents your domain, resolve related disapprovals, and check whether priority products appear.

Where the selection does not match the destination, Merchant Center disapproves the products with the message "CSS not selected for this destination". Resolve the CSS mismatch, then check for any remaining eligibility issues.

Merchant Center and third-party catalogs provide separate routes into the section

Coverage figures cover 1 September to 13 October 2026. Share and position figures cover 9 to 29 September 2026. Routes by which a product can appear in the Comparison Sites section. Source: BrightEdge Professional Services, with CSS mechanics from Google Merchant Center documentation.

Third-party comparison services use their own product catalogs, separate from Merchant Center. Retailers should check which services carry their products and whether the information is accurate.

Google Shopping appeared substantially more often than other services during the period measured. The section exists to give third-party services comparable prominence. Monitor changes in service appearances alongside your own product coverage.

Coverage returned to its previous level by 30 September

On 16 September, the number of tracked keywords showing a Comparison Sites section was 38% below the previous Product Grid baseline. Coverage increased through the remainder of September and matched the previous baseline on 30 September. The baseline is 53,035 keywords, day one counted 32,771, and 30 September counted 53,227.

Since 3 October, the combined count has remained 3% to 8% above that baseline.

These figures measure how often a product section appeared in tracked search results. They do not establish whether individual retailers retained their visibility or traffic. Changes in how the new section was collected may also have affected the early trend.

Markets did not move together

Selected markets, indexed to each market's own Product Grid average for 10 to 14 September. Source: BrightEdge Professional Services, 1 September to 13 October 2026. The six shown are the clearest examples of each pattern. The other eight tracked markets mostly follow the large-market or Poland shape.

Germany, Italy and Spain took the deepest day-one hits and recovered slowest, then sat above their old baselines on 3 October. Finland and Norway took smaller early hits and missed the 30 September step.

Finland and Norway remained below baseline on 13 October, the last day of the window. Both are small markets where a few dozen keywords move the index, so neither reading is a reliable guide alone.

What to do before the holiday peak

• Establish which CSS represents each merchant domain for free listings. Confirm the service, resolve eligibility issues, and assess that choice against your own product visibility. A market-wide share does not answer it.
• Annotate 16 September in European product reporting. The grid and the Comparison Sites section are different layouts, so measures either side are not like for like. Mark the date, report layout-specific measures separately, and keep the earlier history.
• Establish which third-party services carry your priority products, market by market. Those boxes fill from each service's own catalog. Record the service, the feed behind it, and whether the product data is accurate. Order the work by which markets carry your peak trading. The recovery index does not tell you where your catalog gaps are.
• Make the feed, the page and the structured data agree. Product information may appear across Google Shopping, third-party catalogs and AI shopping experiences. Match titles, prices, availability and identifiers across all of them.
• Compare clicks either side of 16 September. Compare product-page and non-product-page clicks before and after the change.

Start by checking CSS setup and product eligibility. Then prioritize the markets and products that matter most for holiday trading. Building coverage across third-party catalogs is slower, and how far up the list it belongs depends on which markets and products carry your peak.

Related check: product-page accessibility

Product-page accessibility is a related readiness check, and it sits outside the research above.

Crawlers vary in whether and when they execute JavaScript, and several AI crawlers fetch raw HTML without rendering it. Content that appears only after client-side rendering may be missed, so serve price, variants, availability and reviews in the page code itself.

Test this on your own pages. An industry average does not tell you which of your templates fail. Crawl a sample of product pages with JavaScript disabled and compare what appears with the browser view. Then check server logs for which crawlers fetched the full product content.

How to check this for your own site

Before you compare anything, note what changed in the reports. From the week of 27 September 2026, BrightEdge platform Product Grid reports reflect the new layout. Grid title, grid rank, product count and seller count can shift for reasons unrelated to SEO performance.

Find the keywords that lost a grid listing. In BrightEdge Product Grid reporting, pull the EEA keywords where your products appeared in the grid before 16 September, by market. Those are the keywords to follow through the switch.

Compare by market, with 16 September annotated. In Data Cube X and Product Grid reporting, compare keyword counts by listing type for your domain on either side of 16 September. Index each market to its 10 to 14 September average, as this edition does.

Compare clicks across the switch. In GSC Reporting, compare clicks to product pages and to non-product pages for your EEA markets before and after 16 September.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Comparison Sites section?

A section Google began showing on 16 September 2026, observed in the 14 EEA markets BrightEdge tracks, where comparison shopping services list products. Google Shopping, Google's own service, is one of them. It replaced the free product grid.

What is a comparison shopping service?

A service that places products in Google results in Europe, such as Google Shopping, idealo or billiger.de. A retailer selects one for its free listings.

Is the product grid gone everywhere?

No. The 14 EEA markets BrightEdge tracks all switched on 16 September. The UK, US, Canada and Australia kept the grid throughout the window.

Which markets did BrightEdge measure?

Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden. These are 13 EU countries plus Norway. Other EEA markets exist and were not measured, so this edition does not describe them. Share and position figures cover Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

Which comparison shopping service should I select?

This research does not answer that. Google Shopping appeared 16 to 35 times as often as the next-largest service. That is across Germany, France, Spain and Italy, from 9 to 29 September 2026. That figure measures how often each service shows up in the section. It does not measure how a merchant's products perform inside it, and BrightEdge has not tested what changes when a merchant switches service. Start by reading which service represents your domain.

Did EEA traffic drop when the grid was removed?

This edition measures visibility and does not measure clicks, so it cannot answer that. Compare clicks to your product pages and to your non-product pages either side of 16 September in your own reporting.

Are merchants keeping their visibility?

The counts cannot answer that. Keyword coverage of the Comparison Sites section matched the old Product Grid level by 30 September. The counts show how many keywords display the section. Whether a given merchant's products appear inside it is a different question. That depends on your CSS selection and on the feeds third-party services ingest.

Is the grid coming back?

Unknown. The change is a compliance step and Google disagrees with the ruling. Compliance with the decision does not establish that this particular layout has to remain.

Technical methodology

Key takeaways

What is still open

Three questions would change this advice if they resolved differently.

• Whether the supplier unit, Google's separate section for direct sellers, appears on product queries at all. No capture in this collection shows it.
• How Google ranks the services inside the section. We have not located documentation.
• Where clicks from the section are reported in Search Console and Merchant Center. We have not located documentation.

More from this series

See the rest of the Weekly AI & Search Insights series. 
For more on the grid removal and the Google Shopping lead, read EEA Product Grid Is Gone: Google Shopping Still Leads.
For the access and rendering checks behind machine-readable product pages, read our guide to AI agents.

BrightEdge tracks product visibility across search and AI surfaces. See how your products appear in the markets that changed with Data Cube X, or request a demo.