In Media MergerMania 2025, We All Lose
Whoever comes out on top of the scramble to gobble up Warner Bros. Discovery, media consumers will lose out as a smaller and smaller number of rich people determine what our media looks like.
Having already trashed CBS after the Paramount-Skydance merger was approved just a few months ago, David Ellison is now pledging to make “sweeping changes” to CNN if he takes over Warner Bros. (Taylor Hill / FilmMagic)
On December 5, Netflix announced an $82.7 billion merger agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, the media behemoth that owns everything from CNN and HBO Max to the Harry Potter films and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The deal would combine the number-one and number-four streaming platforms and give the former DVD deliverers control of a massive library of content.
But Paramount Skydance, the other giant — behind Top Gun, SpongeBob SquarePants, and CBS — wants Warner too. So three days later, the jilted suitors launched a hostile takeover, going straight to Warner’s shareholders with a $108.4 billion offer to buy not just the streaming business but the cable networks like CNN and TNT too.
Coverage of this massive wave of media consolidation is treated like pro wrestling, with dueling CEOs undercutting and outmaneuvering each other. It’s a tag-team fight, The K-Pop Deal Hunters vs. The Nepo Boss Babies, with a crooked ref in the middle holding his palms out ready to be greased.
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