WBD Acquisition Thread

[PF9]

The early 1990s Addams Family media will now also be under one roof, with the exception of the international rights to the first film.

The two live-action films were from Paramount (the first film was originally developed at Orion, which owned the 1960s TV show and retained the international rights to the first film, rights now owned by Amazon/MGM), while the 1992-93 ABC cartoon was from Hanna-Barbera. It is unknown to this day why Paramount declined involvement in that cartoon as during this time, they owned a trademark for The Addams Family.

 

[RandomMe]

IDK if NBC and Versant already have the LA Olympics, but considering Eurosport already has the rights in advance, seems plausible.

 

[Moe]

Los Angeles Olympics 2028 will be a key event for the new media house.

Not in the US because NBCUniversal/Versant have media rights for all future Olympic games until 2036.

Your list is too, too over ambitions for Ellison since corporation is notoriously for steep cut after merger closes, also heavy debt make more harder for Paramount-WB to expand.

 

[PF9]

If this merger is approved, one day we could very well see a merger of PepsiCo and the Coca-Cola Company. That would be a much similar merger to this one.

 

[Moe]

If this merger is approved, one day we could very well see a merger of PepsiCo and the Coca-Cola Company. That would be a much similar merger to this one.

Oh my God, that's scary.

The monopoly at finest.

 

[John Pannozzi]

HBOMax have been failed very much in delivering and caring about non-prestige tiers. Disney+ has a better overall catalogue of general entertainment/prestige branches than its crappy localization and its failure to add dubbing to episodes/shows. I feel sorry for you. But because some select content like Friends, TBBT, Ben10, Regular Show was added to a service, it's not a good WB GE Streaming.

HBO Max has/had some good documentaries particularly Pee-Wee as Himself and Spielberg. I also really like the Gremlins cartoon (I hope against hope that new seasons and/or the planned Gremlins 3 still happen regardless of ownership changes) and Tiny Toons Looniversity was alright.

But they removed so much stuff, I can hardly keep track of what's still on there. @GRPHX you mentioned being a fan of Regular Show, I want to mention the same creator did Close Enough, which was my favorite Max original (and one of my favorite TV shows from this decade, period), and I was massively displeased when it was canceled and delisted.

 

[PF9]

Another note:

This academic year ESPN began sublicensing a package of Big 12 Conference football and basketball games to TNT Sports.

CBS has been a sublicensing partner for the Big 12 since the conference assumed that name in 1996, having previously been known as the Big Eight Conference prior to adding four Texas schools from the disbanded Southwest Conference.

Through this time, CBS' involvement with the Big 12 has been limited to basketball.

With CBS and TNT now set to be co-owned, I'd like to see Big 12-controlled football games on CBS, making them the third OTA network to air Big 12 football games (ABC and Fox are the first two). The only other P4 conference with three OTA partners is the Big Ten, which airs games on CBS, Fox, and NBC. The Big Ten has won the last three national titles in FBS football: 2023 and 2024 by bluebloods Michigan and Ohio State respectively (they share one of the most intense rivalries in FBS, their meeting every year is always the highest-rated and most-watched FBS game during the regular season; I am an OSU fan), and in 2025 by Indiana, a school whose football program had for a long time been a doormat (but has a highly successful men's basketball program, having won multiple national titles and once being coached by Bob Knight), but has become a power under Curt Cignetti.

Oh my God, that's scary.

The monopoly at finest.

For the record, I prefer that Coke get acquired by North American Grocery Co., the working name for one of the successors to Kraft Heinz (which makes a SpongeBob shapes mac and cheese) once it splits later this year; it will own several beverage brands that can be integrated into the Coke portfolio in the US (one of which, Kool-Aid, is often advertised on Nick).

 

[John Pannozzi]

I could mention more properties that WB and Paramount have both involved with.

Paramount and WB/New Line own the Friday the 13th films, but producer/director Sean S. Cunningham (and his production label(s)) and writer Victor Miller (the later of which won rights to the first film's screenplay in a highly publicized legal battle a few years ago) own rights to their underlying source material, there's forthcoming Friday material I believe is being licensed by Miller (with Cunningham's blessing IINM) namely a Crystal Lake prequel series produced by A24 for Peacock, and a Jason Universe initiative which I'm not sure is still in the works. Complicated stuff.

Plus Paramount owns the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, but WB owns at least the American theatrical rights to first four theatrical TMNT movies (Fortune Star owns the international rights to the first four films, and certain rights to the 2007 animated TMNT film belong to one of the successors of the Weinstein Company and whoever owns the holdings of Imagi studios).

I could go on, but I don't want to, and I don't feel the even the potential positives from the consolidation of these rights are worth everything this merger will cause.

 

[PF9]

In the 1990s, both Paramount and WB premiered syndicated shows set in the future on a space station.

Paramount had Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (which was part of the larger Star Trek franchise), and WB had Babylon 5. The latter was part of the Prime Time Entertainment Network, a joint venture of WB and United Television. WB eventually partnered with Tribune to launch the WB network, and United with Paramount to launch UPN. Both networks launched in January 1995, then merged 11 years later to form The CW.

 

[Insidus]

I had a prediction for Netflix taking over here:

Post in thread 'Warner Bros. Discovery News & Discussion Thread'

Dec 5, 2025

So if I understand this correctly, the split into a tv division and streaming/studios division is still happening, but the tv division (which includes all the linear channel+TNT Sports US+Discovery+) will be called Discovery Global instead of WBD GN and the other division will have WB Pictures/TV/Games+HBO/Max+NewLine+TNTSports+Olympics?

So basically, one part of the company has the streaming and studios producing content and the other has the tv channels to air it?

I presume that Warner Archive will be gone by 2027. So not many releases left. Also not sure about the fate of classic...

• Checkerboard

Since that's not factual anymore, might as well do one for Paramount taking over now...

• HBO, HBO2, HBO3 rebrand to SkyShowtime 1/2/3 in Europe. This will be an easy step actually. The recently launched tv channels on the service are a precurser to that and their content. There won't be diversity like now in the sense of HBO1 being the main channel - all 3 SkyS channels will have their own advantages. Only distinction will be genre. The rebrand will be actually an upgrade since they will utilize the whole SkyS library, unlike HBO being focused now mostly on its own content.
• HBO Max in Europe is merged into SkyShowtime. It gets its own new sections on the vod service - those will be HBO, Adult Swim, CN, Cartoonito.
• HBO will continue to exist as a legacy brand mostly, similarly to CN using still the og logo on products.
• In USA and select countries, HBO is merged into Paramount/Paramount+.
• More Paramount+ content is added to SkyShowtime.
• Some classic MTV/Nick shows make it over to Adult Swim.
• Comedy Central gets some Adult Swim content, including Rick and Morty.
• Some Nicktoons make it over to Cartoon Network.
• Some CN shows make it vice versa to Nick networks.
• KCA will be aired now also on CN.
• CN gets a rebrand, probably implementing some orange graphics, in the first phase.
• Warner Archive continues to operate at least until 2028. Will put out content from Paramount Skydance - namely westerns, drama and nicktoons.
• Cooking and Food Network will merge.
• MTV and Nickelodeon global feed launch HD in Europe where missing.
• TLC gets BET content.
• Some more linear feeds get closed, namely in Asia and LatAm.
• Some "random" shows make a return as reboots/reruns/rereleases. One of those will be Captain Planet.
• CBS Sports gets some Eurosport content.
• CNN is either sold off or relaunched. Gets live stream on SkyS (HBO Max) along with Eurosport/CBS Sports.
• Los Angeles Olympics 2028 will be a key event for the new media house.

I believe WBD has stakes in the Food brands not full ownership and I do wonder what is to become of Nicktoons and Boomerang. Considering how much content is left within Nickelodeon Animation I wouldn't be shocked if they positioned Nickelodeon to handle only live-action and Cartoon Network serve as the animation side of the merged company.

TLC Africa hasn't aired OWN content in years so I get where the BET is coming from.

 

[lowell]

It was obviously Netflix or nothing for me. "Never" one happened. The goal of movie lobbies/unions were to bring Amazon or Comcast into bidding-game. But they are smart. They've didn't dare it.

I wish good(!) luck them(cinema lobies and unions) with arrogant bastard Ellison.

Comcast paid $63.12B for all of Sky so their debt levels are around $92B, meaning it wouldn't be easy to go after it.

If Ellison's financing suddenly collapses, Amazon could likely revisit WarnerDiscovery without Skydance in the way.

It could become one though.

Hollywood will erase it if the Ellisons leave town in the future.

If it wasn't Ellison, I would be more nuanced about Skydance.

Even though he had mistakes, Bakish still placed integrity when he asked the Redstones for actual feedback on the Paramount Global rebrand.

Ellison was all about slapping his Skydance name everywhere without thinking how it could tarnish the legacy of the company.

If this merger is approved, one day we could very well see a merger of PepsiCo and the Coca-Cola Company. That would be a much similar merger to this one.

If you're going to go there, who will the beloved darling Truth Social (yes, not kidding, it will be for sale soon) marry at the aisle? Space X (owner of XAI, who's the parent of X, or formerly known as Twitter) or TikTok US (of which the Ellisons own 15%), lol.

 

[GRPHX]

What goal do you think Netflix will turn to next? The problem of not having a legacy library persists.

 

[JulianRO]

Just continue their business as usual, nothing else.

 

[RandomMe]

What goal do you think Netflix will turn to next? The problem of not having a legacy library persists.

There are lots of small companies around the world waiting to ink supply agreements with them

 

[Elijah Abrams]

It’s not just the state AGs fighting this, so here’s hope.

Senate Democrats Ask David Ellison To “Preserve Records” As They Threaten Investigation Of Paramount Contacts With Trump Over WB Bid

Senators fired off a letter to Paramount CEO David Ellison, asking him to preserve records regarding attempts to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.

deadline.com

 

[RegularCapital]

I still think we need to take a wait-and-see approach. This clearly isn't like AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner or even Discovery's acquisition of WarnerMedia.

In fact, why don't I invite WBD expert @RegularCapital over so he can share his thoughts on what Warner Bros. Discovery (and especially its animation and kids & family divisions, since those are relevant to this forum) would look like under Paramount, a Skydance Corporation ownership? I'd also like to hear his honest thoughts on the likelihood of Paramount's bid actually moving forward and getting officially approved by U.S. and global regulators.

I gave myself a few days to take in all the news, I don't think this merger is a good idea, there will be job losses, this will likely include people I know at WBD, and even a couple at Paramount, there will be less opportunities and chances for creatives too.

As for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon under one roof, it has been done before, we only need to look at Corus in Canada, but there will be consolidation, expect some secondary channels to close, including Discovery Family Channel (which Hasbro has written down their lifetime investment in their recent yearly accounts, it is now deemed worthless to them), expect Boomerang to close, and Nicktoons will merge into Cartoon Network. Getting rid of the Cartoon Network brand would be a difficult decision and I think it won't happen entirely.

Netflix was a better choice but only for the studios and streaming side (I think people were a bit hyperbolic over the theatrical window, a WB movie isn't usually the same as a Netflix movie in terms of budget or quality, but even Paramount's window isn't that long, so what's the difference) Preferably, I would want WB to be independent, but Netflix is in considerably more homes, so WB's library would be more accessible.

All in all, after 12 years covering Cartoon Network news, I'm fed up with mergers, three times during that time is insane, but it's less of a headscratcher than trying to work out how to split WBD into two (which would happen if they went with Netflix), offload a lot of debt to one side of the split and hope for the whole thing to work.

 

[JulianRO]

"Thousands of layoffs" anticipated under terms of $111 billion Warner Bros./Paramount deal

"Thousands of layoffs" anticipated under terms of $111 billion Warner Bros./Paramount deal

www.avclub.com

Not a surprise.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-27/s-p-analyst-sees-paramount-rating-as-strained-after-warner-deal

So Paramount is acquiring WBD in vain?

Mod Note: Double posted merged. Use the multi quote and edit buttons instead of posting twice in a row

 

[PF9]

What goal do you think Netflix will turn to next? The problem of not having a legacy library persists.

Probably seeking an acquisition by Sony, which would bring Netflix under common ownership with Sony Pictures and effectively make Netflix the flagship streaming service of Sony Pictures.

It would also bring the smash hit KPop Demon Hunters back under Sony control.

 

[RandomMe]

I gave myself a few days to take in all the news, I don't think this merger is a good idea, there will be job losses, this will likely include people I know at WBD, and even a couple at Paramount, there will be less opportunities and chances for creatives too.

As for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon under one roof, it has been done before, we only need to look at Corus in Canada, but there will be consolidation, expect some secondary channels to close, including Discovery Family Channel (which Hasbro has written down their lifetime investment in their recent yearly accounts, it is now deemed worthless to them), expect Boomerang to close, and Nicktoons will merge into Cartoon Network. Getting rid of the Cartoon Network brand would be a difficult decision and I think it won't happen entirely.

Netflix was a better choice but only for the studios and streaming side (I think people were a bit hyperbolic over the theatrical window, a WB movie isn't usually the same as a Netflix movie in terms of budget or quality, but even Paramount's window isn't that long, so what's the difference) Preferably, I would want WB to be independent, but Netflix is in considerably more homes, so WB's library would be more accessible.

All in all, after 12 years covering Cartoon Network news, I'm fed up with mergers, three times during that time is insane, but it's less of a headscratcher than trying to work out how to split WBD into two (which would happen if they went with Netflix), offload a lot of debt to one side of the split and hope for the whole thing to work.

Indeed. Unfortunately we're facing grim times, greed causing new mergers and possibly monopolies soon.

Cartoon Network was harmed by the end of Turner as an independent company in 2019, then hit by the tax write-offs of 2022 when WBD came and now that the merger is almost certain, the term "Big 3" of American Kids TV will likely be consigned to history.

 

[PF9]

Probably seeking an acquisition by Sony, which would bring Netflix under common ownership with Sony Pictures and effectively make Netflix the flagship streaming service of Sony Pictures.

It would also bring the smash hit KPop Demon Hunters back under Sony control.

Ironically, this would also give Sony control of the release of first-run episodes of the Pokémon anime in the US, a series based on a property owned by a competitor of Sony, Nintendo (although this didn't stop Sony from landing the film rights to The Legend of Zelda).