Comcast to potentially buy part of Warner/Discovery in future

[quinnmac000]

Comcast's Roberts would have loved to acquire Time Warner, John Malone says

Comcast (CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts would have loved to purchased AT&T's (T) Time Warner, billionaire media mogul and Discovery (DISCA) board member John Malone said."There's...

seekingalpha.com

Discovery shareholder John Malone says 'there's no question' Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wanted to acquire WarnerMedia

AT&T decided regulatory and ownership challenges were too fraught to merge WarnerMedia with NBCUniversal, according to Discovery shareholder John Malone.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Viator]

Y'know, thinking about it, I wonder if this might be a way of tiptoeing around the FTC to not cause legal concerns, rather than outright buying WarnerMedia, Comcast could take their time and do small purchases when they can, taking things that can then be used elsewhere.

May benefit certain groups especially, like WBGames, Wizarding World, and DC. Two of those, Comcast doesn't have a direct hand in (IE, Publicization of comic books and novellas, and the other being able to have a hand in game development).

 

[quinnmac000]

Y'know, thinking about it, I wonder if this might be a way of tiptoeing around the FTC to not cause legal concerns, rather than outright buying WarnerMedia, Comcast could take their time and do small purchases when they can, taking things that can then be used elsewhere.

May benefit certain groups especially, like WBGames, Wizarding World, and DC. Two of those, Comcast doesn't have a direct hand in (IE, Publicization of comic books and novellas, and the other being able to have a hand in game development).

Minority partner would allow them to have access to Warner Properties at a much lower licensing fee since they are mainly paying themselves as well as simplify the process to get IPs for the park.

There wouldn't be any regulatory issues as long as Comcast doesn't fully outright own the company but minority partnership would help reduce their debt and allow a large library to mine from and unite Wicked with the Wizard of Oz.

 

[shiekra38]

Comcast's Roberts would have loved to acquire Time Warner, John Malone says

Comcast (CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts would have loved to purchased AT&T's (T) Time Warner, billionaire media mogul and Discovery (DISCA) board member John Malone said."There's...

seekingalpha.com

Discovery shareholder John Malone says 'there's no question' Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wanted to acquire WarnerMedia

AT&T decided regulatory and ownership challenges were too fraught to merge WarnerMedia with NBCUniversal, according to Discovery shareholder John Malone.

www.cnbc.com

Wowza, this could be very cool

Not sure the extent to which they'd own everything, but that's a massive amount of stuff

 

[GA-MBIT]

This is all a part of Comcast's longterm plan to finally build that DC Land in Islands of Adventure. 21 years in the making, can't wait!

 

[Viator]

Redirect Notice

To just do an update, Comcast is seemingly looking into either Roku, or ViacomCBS for a potential deal of sorts.

Honestly, I see a lot of reasons why they'd go for ViacomCBS--especially for their entertainment offerings and that it could benefit that of Peacock, NBC, and the Universal Park's and Resorts.

 

[DK745]

Redirect Notice

To just do an update, Comcast is seemingly looking into either Roku, or ViacomCBS for a potential deal of sorts.

Honestly, I see a lot of reasons why they'd go for ViacomCBS--especially for their entertainment offerings and that it could benefit that of Peacock, NBC, and the Universal Park's and Resorts.

I mean that would be a reason to go after WB as well. But going after ViacomCBS seems like it would be more difficult without selling off some things because 2 of the big broadcast networks merging together just seems like it would be something under review and they would fight to stop happening.

 

[Viator]

I mean that would be a reason to go after WB as well. But going after ViacomCBS seems like it would be more difficult without selling off some things because 2 of the big broadcast networks merging together just seems like it would be something under review and they would fight to stop happening.

As @Disneyhead mentioned on the EU Wish List thread, I would suspect CBS to be separated from the deal--in the similar vein to how Disney had to divest that of Fox Sports when 21CP occured. Otherwise, NBC just ceased their NBC Sports Network, so CBS Sports may be able to work in a deal like this--and the majority of the groups that ViacomCBS has, are things that Comcast kind of doesn't.

 

[MrBlonde]

As @Disneyhead mentioned on the EU Wish List thread, I would suspect CBS to be separated from the deal--in the similar vein to how Disney had to divest that of Fox Sports when 21CP occured. Otherwise, NBC just ceased their NBC Sports Network, so CBS Sports may be able to work in a deal like this--and the majority of the groups that ViacomCBS has, are things that Comcast kind of doesn't.

The broadcast channel CBS would have to be divested as they can't own 2 of them at the same time, but who would want just a broadcast channel without the studio behind it? Paramount feels like a dying studios these days to me, but there's still value in its property.

Roku as a tech partner sounds interesting as they could use the technology to replace their cable boxes to internet-based streaming, but then they'd lose out on all the reoccurring revenue of cable boxes people "rent" every month as its required to TV service. That, combined with existing partnerships for other streaming and Comcast's internet, would make it a one-stop nexus for people's entertainment.

 

[Viator]

The broadcast channel CBS would have to be divested as they can't own 2 of them at the same time, but who would want just a broadcast channel without the studio behind it? Paramount feels like a dying studios these days to me, but there's still value in its property.

Roku as a tech partner sounds interesting as they could use the technology to replace their cable boxes to internet-based streaming, but then they'd lose out on all the reoccurring revenue of cable boxes people "rent" every month as its required to TV service. That, combined with existing partnerships for other streaming and Comcast's internet, would make it a one-stop nexus for people's entertainment.

Hypothetically, if Comcast goes for ViacomCBS--if they divest CBS's Broadcast channel; they would get a handful of large corpo subsidiaries in part of it.

> Paramount Pictures Corporation
> Nickelodeon (which would include Nick proper, the companies making Nick content for all age groups as-well)
> Showtime Networks (which would include Showtime, The Movie Channel, and the other Showtime networks)
> MTV Entertainment Group (which would include MTV, Comedy Central, the Smithsonian Channel [With a minority stake in Canada], VH1, and more)
> BET
> 50% stake in CW

A potential problem I can see, lies in the amount of streaming services that ViacomCBS actually has, with Paramount+, PlutoTV, and BET+. I wonder if that could be a concern in the FCC regulations, especially with the rise of major multi-subsidary corporations. Along with that, of the 50% stake in CW.

 

[Nick]

As @Disneyhead mentioned on the EU Wish List thread, I would suspect CBS to be separated from the deal--in the similar vein to how Disney had to divest that of Fox Sports when 21CP occured. Otherwise, NBC just ceased their NBC Sports Network, so CBS Sports may be able to work in a deal like this--and the majority of the groups that ViacomCBS has, are things that Comcast kind of doesn't.

They ceased NBC Sports in channel only. They still have plenty of contracts with the different sports and the NBC Sports name is actually still in use when they show sports, they just don't have a dedicated channel (although Peacock does).

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Just lmk if Survivor changes networks and until then this won’t affect me.

 

[Viator]

They ceased NBC Sports in channel only. They still have plenty of contracts with the different sports and the NBC Sports name is actually still in use when they show sports, they just don't have a dedicated channel (although Peacock does).

So in that situation, would it be apt to say that if they have to divest certain aspects, would we likely see it being that of CBS's Broadcast, CBS Sports, and maybe the 50% share of The CW?

 

[quinnmac000]

CBS Sports won't be an issue. Both channels are local and not international which is the issue Disney ran into with the sports channel becasue Fox kept the rest. The market share of those channels are minimal.

As for the streaming channels CBS has, since they all are very niche, they won't be an issue as well.

The only issue with be CBS broadcasting and potentially the CW as Warner Discovery may not want to continue to share ownership despite CBS participating financially in all the shows.

In other news, the big draws for this will be the Miramax library which puts Scream and Halloween full into Universal hands, the CBS procedural shows (CSI, NCIS, FBI) because people love background binge watching (Law and Order SVU was one of the most watched shows for the past 5 years on Hulu), Nickelodeon studios to add to their animation lineup, Sky owning fully all the JV they have in Europe, and the addition of comedy central bolsters the already strong comedy library with South Park, Broad City, Key and Peele, and more for distribution.

The film library is extremely robust but doesn't really have any real highlights for Universal outside of MI.

 

[Nick]

Comcast’s entertainment side and ViacomCBS are so similar that it would blend in well… almost too well. It doesn’t diversify them enough from what they already are.

 

[quinnmac000]

Comcast’s entertainment side and ViacomCBS are so similar that it would blend in well… almost too well. It doesn’t diversify them enough from what they already are.

You are create this merger creates a lot of redundancies especially since CBSViacom does not own any major production companies. To explain what I mean when Comcast bought Sky, they got Jupiter studios (creator of all those crime shows), Bad Wolf (rights holder for Dark Materials and other HBO shows), and more. The only thing Comcast gains that they don't already have is a YA division Awesomeness but the YA company is what Comcast sold to Viacom.

 

[Mad Dog]

This projected/rumored buy just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[Nick]

Wonder if this may make some sort of partial sell off to Comcast more likely:

 

[rageofthegods]

Wonder if this may make some sort of partial sell off to Comcast more likely:

If anything, it's more likely to target Comcast and other cable monopolies.

 

[Viator]

In a larger development via Charles Gasparino (Fox Business), he has gathered with multiple sources that Shari Redstone is having multiple preliminary multi-level one meetings with other media CEO's; on the prospect of a potential shopping of ViacomCBS. And in this aspect, Charles Gasparino has gathered that Brian Roberts has briefly met with Shari Redstone during SunValley, alongside other CEO's.