The transactional drama consuming Hollywood will be resolved this year, it appears.
After officially putting itself up for sale last month, Warner Bros. Discovery will reportedly decide by Christmas whether to accept a bid from one of several potential suitors or continue with its original plan to split the company in April 2026, according to CNBC’s Alex Sherman.
As it stands, WBD could be facing a myriad of different paths forward. One option — and potentially the most straightforward — is to accept an offer from Paramount, which has submitted three separate bids for the entire company under new owner David Ellison. Reports suggest that Paramount is the only potential buyer interested in acquiring the entire WBD.
Then there’s the split path, which would see WBD separate its streaming and studios businesses (HBO Max, its movie studio, etc.) from its legacy cable assets (TNT Sports, Discovery, etc.). In a post-split world, companies including Netflix, NBCUniversal, and Amazon would have an interest in purchasing the streaming and studios businesses, which will be called Warner Bros. after the separation.
Within those two primary paths — selling the whole of WBD to Paramount or selling the more desirable streaming and studios businesses to another company — there are many permutations. Paramount, for instance, could attempt a hostile takeover, going directly to WBD shareholders if the company’s board rejects further bids. NBCUniversal could split from Comcast to combine with Warner Bros. post-split, which would be a more tax-efficient transaction, according to CNBC. WBD could, of course, split and then not sell at all, leaving each company to operate independently.
At play here for sports fans is a vast portfolio of live rights currently under the WBD umbrella. A combination with Paramount would see CBS Sports and TNT Sports under one roof. A split would leave TNT Sports out on an island, with few immediate prospects for consolidation.
By the end of the year, it seems we’ll have some answers about where all of these assets will eventually end up.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.