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Bloomberg: CBS-Time Warner seen as merger candidates

S

ShawnHill1

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-21/time-warner-cbs-seen-candidate-for-merger-real-m-a.html

The article from Bloomberg.com seems more like speculation than anything else, but the writers says that a merger between Time Warner and CBS Corporation makes sense given its partnership of The CW, and their current collaboration between Turner Sports and CBS Sports for the NCAA Basketball tourament.

If a merger between these two were to come about, they would have to work some things, specifically the Showtime networks (whether they would want to add to the HBO/Cinemax suite of networks, or sell to the new Viacom, thus combing it with Epix), and does CBS sell back the Paramount Television portion of its library back to Viacom?

Sumner Redstone says he hesistant to sell CBS, but he's nearing 90, and is grooming his daughter to fully take over National Amusements, the holding company that owns both CBS and Viacom. I guess it'll depend on what she wants, or she may follow her father's wishes.
 
This sounds like the sort of thing a clueless newbie or overimaginitive teenager would come up with, not a professional analyst. "They work together on the CW and March Madness, of course they should merge! And maybe CNN can become the CBS News Network, and maybe Atlanta's CBS affiliation can move to WPCH, and maybe Conan can be groomed to replace Letterman!"

HBO and Showtime are the two major powers in premium television, each with numerous critically acclaimed original series. They aren't merging. To say nothing of Paramount Television vis-a-vis Warner Bros, or the fact someone pointed out when CBS bought TVGN that a big part of the point of the CBS/Viacom split was to separate the broadcast and cable business. I'm sure Turner would love to upgrade from Bleacher Report to CBSSports.com, but CBS Sports and Turner Sports have very different cultures.

The March Madness thing is a marriage of convenience more than anything else. CBS doesn't have a cable sports network with any credibility whatsoever, TimeWarner doesn't have a broadcast network of its own. If a Warner-only network starts going after sports rights or if CBS Sports Network gets big enough to compete for events people actually care about (admittedly that won't be enough for March Madness, though I think TruTV has the schedule CBSSN "would" have), look out.
 
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