Ellison is wasting no time----the Wall Street Journal reporting Paramount Skydance is putting together a majority cash bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, which had been planning to restructure:
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Paramount Skydance wants WBD
- Thread starter michael hagerty
- Start date
Wall Street is going crazy. Shares jump 25%
However, it's still not enough to cover the loss of value in the last few years.
It's an interesting idea. There had been discussions at one time between CBS and CNN. Ted Turner wanted to buy CBS in the 80s. There's been an operational relationship between CBS News and CNN. The movie side is probably what's most attractive for SkyDance. The archive of content, considering Warner plus Turner's purchase of the MGM archive, would make it incredible.
However, it's still not enough to cover the loss of value in the last few years.
It's an interesting idea. There had been discussions at one time between CBS and CNN. Ted Turner wanted to buy CBS in the 80s. There's been an operational relationship between CBS News and CNN. The movie side is probably what's most attractive for SkyDance. The archive of content, considering Warner plus Turner's purchase of the MGM archive, would make it incredible.
I don't see how Paramount doesn't dispose of CBS and the MTV networks prior to or as part of such a deal. It provides a good amount of cash and rids the Ellisons of a political headache. (Or do they sell CBS-MTV to the "new" Discovery? 🤔)
I'm kinda surprised that John Malone wants to cash out right now. Yeah he's 84, but still...
I'm kinda surprised that John Malone wants to cash out right now. Yeah he's 84, but still...
Here's an irony. Last week Malone & Zaslav were at the Paley Center:
John Malone and His Media Mogul Proteges Break Down the Billionaire’s Biggest Deals
Malone appeared in person at the Paley Center for Media Thursday, in a panel that also included David Zaslav, Barry Diller and Mike Fries.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
He also lectured CNN on being leftist:
Cable TV titan and Warner Bros. Discovery chair emeritus slams CNN: 'Left-leaning, anti-Trump'
“CNN is now a shadow of what its founder had envisioned,” the billionaire told the New York Times.
nypost.com
Yeah...they could buy all of WBD, execute the existing plan to split the company and put CBS and all Paramount's linear stuff on that ice floe.
They then have two of the big 5 movie studios, bundle Paramount+, now only barely profitable with HBO Max, which is comfortably so and they're at least in the same conversation as Disney, which will have to deal with its linear stuff sooner or later.
And NBCUniversal starts to look weak-ish by comparison.
It is not unheard of. E. W. Scripps bought Journal Media Group and then split in two; Scripps got all the broadcast assets (along with the Spelling Bee) and the "new" Journal got the newspapers from both companies (which became takeover bait anyway).
Of note is that such a deal here involves the 25% of The CW that Nexstar does not own (Nexstar also has a minority 31% stake in Food Network).
Star Trek and Superman under one roof?
New bid for the NCAA basketball tourney, using the combined assets of TNT, TBS, truTV and CBS?
New NFL and Big Ten contracts by 2030?
Lots of interesting possibilities.
New bid for the NCAA basketball tourney, using the combined assets of TNT, TBS, truTV and CBS?
New NFL and Big Ten contracts by 2030?
Lots of interesting possibilities.
Did the Starship Enterprise ever visit the planet Krypton?🤔🪐 Oh the possibilities.
I think that deal was done together. Seems to me they use combined facilities and air talent.
Do the NCAA streaming rights go to a combined HBO Max/Paramount+ app, or to the proposed TNT Sports app that is to be launched with the WBD split? You could make a convincing case for either/or.
Discovery Global to Launch TNT Sports App After Warner Bros. Split
CEO-elect Gunnar Wiedenfels says Discovery Global has several DTC apps in the works
www.thewrap.com
The FCC already approved the sale of Paramount to Skydance. So they are known buyers.
The DOJ will also have to approve. Disney had to sell off certain Fox assets before that was approved. So there will be likely asset sales.
U.S. Department of Justice Clears Disney Acquisition of 21st Century Fox | The Walt Disney Company
thewaltdisneycompany.com
Turner took on most of the weight in that deal.
What @TheBigA said---except it really doesn't involve broadcast licenses. Paramount Skydance already holds those. Warner Bros. Discovery doesn't have any broadcast licenses.
So this'll be a DOJ deal and I think the question is whether they'll say yes to the whole deal on a proposal from Paramount Skydance to spin linear assets to their own company. I'd expect they will approve, because it's in Paramount Skydance Warner's interest to lose the linear stuff quickly.
Okay, this is silly. But if we pretended it was serious...
The Enterprise of ST:TOS, Kirk/Spock/McCoy/Scotty/Sulu/etc. was about 200 years in the future from when the series launched in 1966, so let's assume after our year 2250.
Superman was launched towards Earth because Krypton was about to be destroyed due to its star going supernova. Allowing for time for him to grow from baby into adult, Baby Kal-El landed on Earth probably prior to World War One, and we know from the original DC comic books that Clark Kent arrived in Metropolis to begin at the Daily Planet somewhere in the 1930s. You might nitpick on this timeline, but it's approximately accurate.
Therefore, allowing for travel time from Krypton to Earth, Krypton's been gone since before our 1900, and Enterprise is post-2250-or-so. That 350 years is very tough to explain away.
I have to believe that SkyDance knew they were going to do this when they closed on Paramount.
And they know what they want to spin off.
I think you're absolutely right.