The high-stakes race to acquire all or part of TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has begun in earnest, with three other media titans making initial bids.
CBS Sports parent company Paramount, NBC Sports parent company Comcast, and Netflix have tendered opening and non-binding offers, according to industry sources and multiple reports, conforming to a Nov. 20 deadline to do so.
Paramount is believed to have made the lone bid of the three for all of WBD, which would involve a large-scale combination of CBS Sports and TNT Sports, and the company’s effort is backed in part by Oracle executive chair Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest person and father of Paramount chair and CEO David Ellison.
Comcast and Netflix, conversely, are said to have focused their respective interests on WBD’s film and television studios and the HBO Max streaming service.
Those initial bids mark a more tangible move by Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix after each had taken more reserved stances publicly on the WBD subject during recent earnings calls.
None of the involved entities have commented, but WBD is aiming for the strategic review process to be complete by end of year. A more formal round of bidding involving binding offers is expected soon.
A move to potentially sell all or part of WBD stands alongside a previously announced plan to split WBD into two separate entities, with the majority of the sports assets going to a forthcoming Discovery Global. A sale, as a result, would need to surpass the planned upside from that endeavor.
In the meantime, WBD is proceeding on development of a new sports-focused streaming service that would operate within Discovery Global. That is happening as WBD CEO David Zaslav recently said the impact of sports on HBO Max subscription growth was minimal.
Washington Issues
In any purchase scenario, regulatory issues will be front and center as the Federal Communications Commission this year has become much more aligned with the leanings of U.S. President Donald Trump. Along those lines, Paramount could face a far easier approval path after it previously reached a legal settlement with Trump to enable its $8 billion merger earlier this year with Skydance Media compared to Comcast, which operates MS Now and has been a frequent target of attack by the president.
Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh, however, recently downplayed that concern on a recent earnings call, and said, “More things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary that’s out there.”
Editors’ note: RedBird Capital, a stakeholder in Paramount Skydance, is also an investor in Front Office Sports through RedBird IMI.
