Warner Bros. Discovery sale (Universal? Paramount? Netflix?)

[Edmilson 12,182]

Heavily in-debt, Warner Bros may be sold to Comcast and combined with NBCUniversal, according to The Hollywood Reporter

 

Quote

Given the company’s daunting challenges, it has become accepted wisdom at the highest levels of the industry that another deal waits in the wings for Warner Bros. Discovery. For reasons related to the complicated structure of that merger, no negotiations can happen until April 2024. But at that point, many industry observers believe that Comcast’s Brian Roberts will make a long-awaited move, looking to combine NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery.

That deal would face some interesting antitrust issues but would give his company scale and a viable streaming service. “Obviously Peacock sucks,” says one exec with knowledge of both companies. “There are some good synergies. I’m sure [Roberts] is licking his chops because the [WBD] stock is so low. And I think that’s Zaslav’s endgame. Get the place sold.” (Roberts and NBCU CEO Jeff Shell met with Zaslav and board member John Malone during the Allen & Co. gathering in Sun Valley last July, but given the rules against plotting any combination, that was no doubt just a friendly get-together.) A WBD spokesperson responds: “We are building Warner Bros. Discovery for the long term.” 

Many top industry execs are so convinced a deal will happen that some are pre-mourning an event that may never happen. “People feel like it’s Comcast for sure,” says the head of one company. “It’s going to be so depressing to lose another major studio [after Disney bought Fox]. And Warners was the Tiffany studio.”

Of course an obituary is premature. Maybe Warners will do a deal with Comcast, maybe not. Meanwhile, Zaslav continues his quest to find a DC superhero, but it seems possible that, eventually, De Luca and Pam Abdy — now acting heads of the division — will end up running the thing by default. De Luca was a comic book collector as a kid, and years ago, at New Line, he made Blade and even had an Iron Man movie in development. (A source says Bob Shaye, the New Line chief at the time, let the option lapse, arguing that it didn’t make sense because Iron Man was too heavy to fly.) “Mike was championing and scratching at the surface of this comic book universe long before it became the only thing that anybody is interested in seeing,” says one longtime associate. 

Given the importance of DC, it appears the top filmmakers operating in that world — Matt Reeves, Phillips and Andy Muschietti — will be shielded from that sharp Wiedenfels knife. One agent with business at the studio says De Luca and Abdy are talent-friendly, decisive and a vast improvement from when the studio sat under AT&T and Jason Kilar. “From where I sit,” he says, “it is night and fucking day from before.” 

 

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warner-bros-discovery-has-bigger-problems-than-its-dc-search-1235221804/

[Drew 597]

Good job, Zaslav. By 2030, there will only be 2 film studios that own everything.

[Bryant Burnette 786]

HBO PeaMaxCockDiscovery

[Luke Skywalker 2,361]

32 minutes ago, Bryant Burnette said:

HBO PeaMaxCockDiscovery

HBO Tumescent Edition?

[Bryant Burnette 786]

30 minutes ago, Luke Skywalker said:

HBO Tumescent Edition?

 

TUBEmescent Edition

[bollemanneke 4,317]

Is WB Discovery related to WB Pictures at all?

[Drew 597]

WB Discovery is the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery.

[TSMefford 1,718]

5 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Is WB Discovery related to WB Pictures at all?

 

WB Discovery is WB Pictures.

[bollemanneke 4,317]

Huh, what happened to their finances?

[Edmilson 12,182]

 

HBO Max Removes 256 ‘Looney Tunes’ Shorts, Three Seasons of ‘The Flintstones’

[King Mark 3,926]

Does that mean  256 Looney Tunes cartoons and 3 seasons of the flintstones  are now considered "racist"?

[mstrox 7,339]

No mark read the article

[Rachael Foley 10,001]

3 minutes ago, King Mark said:

Does that mean  256 Looney Tunes cartoons and 3 seasons of the flintstones  are now considered "racist"?

No, license expired essentially

[Edmilson 12,182]

In the end, it's just another cost-cutting measure by Zaslav that have been plaguing Warner Bros since it was sold to Discovery. After all, he needs to save money to invest in all of those James Gunn DC movies.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

I don't understand with Looney Tunes.  HBO Max and WB are both owned by the same company, so isn't paying a license fee just moving assets around slightly???

[Drew 597]

Zaslav is currently considering selling the copyrights Warner's entire music library.................

 

https://www.ft.com/content/74fc28b8-0499-406e-95d1-a7b99f5e52e9 

[Holko 12,003]

Should we pitch in together and buy them? Specialty labels can do their releases for free if they use producers and artists we approve of.

[Manakin Skywalker 5,908]

We have any billionaires on this board?

[Edmilson 12,182]

6 minutes ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

We have any billionaires on this board?

I am. I mean, once I invent the first ever time machine, I'll have a lot of money! BTW, does anyone know how to build a time machine?

[Jay 45,771]

Just a reminder that Warner Music Group separated out of WB back in 2004 and was never a part of Warner Discovery; This would be a sale of the music rights that WB has themselves, so basically albums that came out on WaterTower Records

[Disco Stu 15,517]

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

Just a reminder that Warner Music Group separated out of WB back in 2004 and was never a part of Warner Discovery; This would be a sale of the music rights that WB has themselves, so basically albums that came out on WaterTower Records

 

Yes, that's the part most relevant to film music enthusiasts, no?

[Bespin Copilot 10,705]

So, no impact on John Williams's catalog?

[Jay 45,771]

It would affect None But The Brave and that's it as far as Williams is concerned (plus Daddy's Gone A-Hunting I guess if WB truly inherited it from National Geographic Pictuers, which was never clear)

[enderdrag64 1,796]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

Just a reminder that Warner Music Group separated out of WB back in 2004 and was never a part of Warner Discovery; This would be a sale of the music rights that WB has themselves, so basically albums that came out on WaterTower Records

So in other words, this could either result in no change, or more expansions, since WB/WaterTower doesn't have a great track record of allowing them

[Disco Stu 15,517]

It'd be nice to read the article about this but I ain't gonna subscribe to the Financial Times and I don't see any other outlet reporting this?

[Jay 45,771]

I dunno, the actual elements would still be in WB picture's vaults, so I dunno how it would work with licensing.

 

Like now if LLL wants to do an expansion of a score from a WB film that had an OST album owned by WMG, they'd be 3 parties in the contract, LLL, WMG, and WBPictures.  If some 4th entity owns the music rights, but WBPictures owns the music, how would it all work?  I have no idea.

[Drew 597]

21 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

It'd be nice to read the article about this but I ain't gonna subscribe to the Financial Times and I don't see any other outlet reporting this?

There is more reporting on it as of this morning. Didn’t realize there was a paywall. The article loaded fine for me when I got the link. 

[Jay 45,771]

Warner Bros. Discovery May Not Combine HBO Max With Discovery Plus After All

[Edmilson 12,182]

Well, it seems that WBD is interested in merging with Paramount Global according to Variety.

 

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-merger-talks-1235847958/

[Manakin Skywalker 5,908]

[Edmilson 12,182]

For us 90s and 2000s kids, the most insane part is that, if this happens, it'll be the merging between Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

 

It could lead to some cool crossovers:

• Cow & Chicken and SpongeBob Squarepants; 
• Dexter's Laboratory and Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius; 
• Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ren & Stimpy; 
• Ed, Edd and Eddy and Hey Arnold!; 
• Mr. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Fairly Odd Parents; 
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Invader Zim;
• The PowerPuff Girls and My Life as a Teenage Robot;
• Adventure Time and Avatar: The Last Airbender;
• Ben 10 and Danny Phantom;
• We Bare Bears and The Penguins of Madagascar;
• And for the grown-ups: Rick and Morty and South Park

 

Of course, these days neither Warner nor Paramount care about their classic nor current cartoons. But that would be cool.

[Drawgoon 130]

Well, if it helps clear the path for LLLR or other specialty labels to release more titles from the Warner catalog, that'd be great!

 

Otherwise, this could be yet another major blow to... what should I call it... competition scene?

[Goldfinger 60]

Neither company is doing well apparently so maybe pooling resources and combining their fledgling streaming services into a one-stop destination rather than two separate entities might be beneficial to both sides. I would much prefer that both sides stay separate with someone like Apple coming in to steer Paramount in the right direction but the alternative for WB might be breaking up and selling the divisions to different orgs. 

[Bayesian 1,613]

On 20/12/2023 at 7:28 PM, Edmilson said:

For us 90s and 2000s kids, the most insane part is that, if this happens, it'll be the merging between Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

 

It could lead to some cool crossovers:

• Cow & Chicken and SpongeBob Squarepants; 
• Dexter's Laboratory and Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius; 
• Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ren & Stimpy; 
• Ed, Edd and Eddy and Hey Arnold!; 
• Mr. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Fairly Odd Parents; 
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Invader Zim;
• The PowerPuff Girls and My Life as a Teenage Robot;
• Adventure Time and Avatar: The Last Airbender;
• Ben 10 and Danny Phantom;
• We Bare Bears and The Penguins of Madagascar;
• And for the grown-ups: Rick and Morty and South Park

Of course, these days neither Warner nor Paramount care about their classic and current cartoons. But that could be cool.

Yup. And for every three that make it into postproduction, one will get sacrificed for the tax write-off.
 

[Nick1Ø66 8,079]

This is really good news.

 

There are WAY too many companies deciding what kind of content we get to consume. Too many "cooks in the kitchen" as it were. With fewer corporations deciding what we can watch, we don't have to think about what to watch so much...we just...watch. That's what consumers are supposed to do...consume. And the fewer companies deciding what we consume, the better for everyone. It's win-win.

 

 

 

 

[Jay 45,771]

In opposite news,

 

Lionsgate and Starz announce split

[Edmilson 12,182]

Apparently it is not happening anymore.

 

Warner Bros. Discovery halts merger talks with Paramount Global, sources say

 

Quote

• Warner Bros. Discovery is no longer pursuing a merger with Paramount Global as its shares trade near a 52-week low, according to people familiar with the matter.
• Skydance Media is still doing due diligence on a potential transaction with Paramount Global, the people said.
• Comcast isn’t interested in buying any Paramount Global assets but would consider commercial partnerships, like bundling or merging Peacock and Paramount+.

 

[bollemanneke 4,317]

Does that mean they can get back to important stuff, namely approving expansions?

[Jay 45,771]

Warner Bros. Discovery to Split Into Two: Streaming and Studios, Global Networks

[Jill Sandwich 11,000]

I will not let this Republic which has stood for a thousand years be split in two. My negotiations... will not fail.

[TSMefford 1,718]

What is with them. Lol. Make up your damn minds! First back to HBO Max and now splitting back up (in a different way, but still)?

 

 

Next they'll change their minds and release the Batgirl movie.

[Jay 45,771]

Latest update

 

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-skydance-acquisition-bid-1236515351/

[Tallguy 7,260]

Finally, the Star Trek / Batman crossover of my dreams!

 

Wait - Who is it that's impossible to get film scores out of? Paramount or WB?

[Rachael Foley 10,001]

4 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Finally, the Star Trek / Batman crossover of my dreams!

 

Wait - Who is it that's impossible to get film scores out of? Paramount or WB?

WB.

[Edmilson 12,182]

10 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Finally, the Star Trek / Batman crossover of my dreams!

 

There's already a Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover in the comic books, and it's pretty decent:

 

 

Maybe now we'll get the movie version?

[Xander Harris 9,528]

I don’t see how creating one big super company with more bureaucracy could possibly be good. I felt the same way about Fox and Disney and other mergers and acquisitions. 

[Jill Sandwich 11,000]

Warnermount

[bollemanneke 4,317]

Mount Bros.

[Yavar Moradi 4,357]

1 hour ago, Director of Poltergeist said:

I don’t see how creating one big super company with more bureaucracy could possibly be good. I felt the same way about Fox and Disney and other mergers and acquisitions. 

 

It's absolutely not good in the grand scheme of things, though there can be little silver linings like the Fantastic Four being able to join the MCU, or maybe LLL finally being able to release The Adventures of Batman and Robin set they had virtually finished six years ago.

Yavar

 

[Edmilson 12,182]

Come on guys, we'll get the SpongeBob vs Bugs Bunny crossover we've all been waiting for!