Paramount Global and WB Discovery in merger talks


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Who? Disney have plenty of problems of their own, and Netflix and Amazon have plenty of content and the power to cherry-pick only the shows and IPs they want. Apple perhaps?

Apple doesn't want to own old media and unlike the rest has shown no interest in buying competitors, instead preferring to produce their own new content. Of all the streamers Apple is the most selective.
 

payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
Apple doesn't want to own old media and unlike the rest has shown no interest in buying competitors, instead preferring to produce their own new content. Of all the streamers Apple is the most selective.
I think that could pay off as some of these streamers have a lot of junk and interfaces that makes navigating it difficult. After awhile it looks like a flea market.
 

Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
Supporter
Right now there are no formal talks between the companies and Pivotal Research analyst Jeff Wlodarczak says he’s skeptical a merger will happen. A more likely tie-up would be Comcast’s NBCUniversal, he said.

While the rest of your comment was spot-on, I wanted to comment on this. Especially given I'm no longer doing the power rankings.

The reason that it won't be a merger/buyout with Comcast (NBC/Universal) is simple- there is no way that Paramount (CBS) and Comcast (NBC) will be allowed to merge. Period. Even though it barely matters to most people today, there are serious rules about that, and it's not going to happen.

Which brings us into the real issue- Paramount has a lot of valuable parts, but the sum is a lot less valuable than the whole. Any deals with Paramount have to take into account its unique ownership structure (owned by National Amusements as a holding company). In addition, the various parts have different values- the streaming is actually a serious drag on the stock performance, CBS has value but is declining, the numerous cable networks have value (but are declining even faster), and the studio and content creation parts of the Paramount are still major players and have independent value.

This is why it's likely (if not foreordained) that Paramount would seek to sell off various assets. But how and why to do so would be tricky. The content creation (Paramount studio) would be incredibly valuable to the big tech streamers .... Netflix, Apple, Amazon. CBS (not the terrestrial stations, but the news and sports) could be valuable to WB or Netflix, if they wanted to move into that area or acquire rights to the NFL. Private equity would be interested in milking the remains of the cable stations. And so on.

But how and why they proceed will be interesting.
 

Max is my go to. It would be even more killer with Star Trek and whatever else CBS has I suppose.

All of Star Trek which is 900 episodes and 13 movies, with made for streaming movie coming (Section 31), the next seasons for Lower Decks, SNWs, and Discovery coming likely next year and a promised Star Trek: Starfleet Academy perhaps in 2025 and a possibly Star Trek Legacy.

Then you have NCIS/CSI shows which are hugely popular shows, which why there are so many of them, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NYC, CSI: Cyber, CSI: Vegas, NCIS, NCIS: LA, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Sydney, JAG. Total episodes 1021.
 



Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
Supporter
I was jsut quoting the article i linked to

I know, but I was adding additional context because a lot of articles simply don't grapple with the realities of the situation. Someone could look at streamers and say, "Peacock and Paramount, why not?"

But if you understood that the companies actually include CBS and NBC, you're understand ... why not. That's not to say it's completely impossible, but any such deal would be so complicated and contingent (involving shedding all that is CBS, including the various contracts and rights) that it places Comcast in the very very very unlikely category.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
Who? Disney have plenty of problems of their own, and Netflix and Amazon have plenty of content and the power to cherry-pick only the shows and IPs they want. Apple perhaps?
The film and TV catalogs are going to be purchased, in whole or in part, by Amazon, Netflix and maybe others. All of these "valuable" catalogs people boast about on here are mostly of interest to old folks (who are most of the posters here).

Grease in your catalog is only marginally more important, financially, than having The Beverly Hillbillies.

The value of these assets is decreasing all the time and picking up speed.
 


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