The combined entities of CBS and TNT Sports would have an enormous treasure trove of live rights if their parent companies are ultimately combined.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Paramount Skydance is “preparing a majority cash bid” to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount owns CBS. WBD had been planning to separate its studio and streaming assets from its linear cable networks (TNT, TBS, CNN, and more). The bid, backed by the Ellison family, would reportedly encompass the full WBD company.
Paramount is operated by David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison. With Oracle’s stock gains this week, the elder Ellison surpassed Elon Musk as the richest businessperson in the world, with a net worth of around $400 billion, before Musk reclaimed his spot at the top. (Front Office Sports’s primary investor is RedBird IMI, a division of RedBird Capital, which is an investor in Paramount.)
If a merger between Paramount and WBD eventually closed, their combined sports offerings would rival and perhaps even surpass ESPN for the most comprehensive collection in the industry.
Paramount and CBS have rights to the NFL, The Masters, PGA Championship, PGA Tour, Big Ten football and basketball, Champions League, and, as of next year, every UFC event. TNT has MLB rights that include two full playoff rounds, half of national NHL games (split with ESPN), some Big 12 football and basketball (sublicensed from ESPN), and College Football Playoff games (also sublicensed from ESPN, with an expansion happening next year). It also has packages in NASCAR, Unrivaled, the French Open, Big East basketball, and AEW.
Significantly, Paramount and WBD also share the full rights to the men’s basketball NCAA tournament.
The combined entities would have distribution on broadcast (via CBS), cable, and streaming (via HBO Max and Paramount+). They would essentially control or at least have their hands in all relevant American sports besides the NBA and SEC.
