One of the big news stories on Friday came from The Hollywood Reporter. The report said several unnamed executives in the entertainment industry are speculating Comcast CEO Brian Roberts will seek a merger with the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery. The same sources in the report claim that David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, is also eager to merge with another media company.
One anonymous executive was quoted in the report as saying “Obviously Peacock sucks. 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.”Another unnamed entertainment executive said that a combination seemed likely, in the fact that “people feel like it’s Comcast for sure.”
The Hollywood Reporter story also notes that Zaslav met with Roberts and NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell during the Allen & Co. business conference in Sun Valley last July. However, what was discussed at that meeting is unknown. It has been said that the merger deal with Warner Bros. and Discovery does prevent them from making an attempt at another merger until April 2024.
Now, let’s say that there is a merger and we have a Comcast-Warner Bros. Discovery merger deal did go through. AEW’s deal with Warner Bros. Discovery on TBS and TNT is up next October, with an option for WBD to pick up the shows through October 2024.
WWE’s deal with USA Network for Raw ends in October 2023 as well. It was back in March 2021, WWE signed a huge $1 billion five-year deal with NBCUniversal to host WWE content, including all major live month PPV’s. NBCUniversal has a strong relationship with WWE and Warner Bros. Discovery has a strong relationship with AEW. This now raises the question as to which wrestling company would stay in partnership with the combined entity. Earlier this year, new WWE co-CEO Nick Khan stated that WWE has certainly expanded their audience and viewership with the Peacock partnership, and that he feels they have outperformed on Peacock when it comes to advertising and subscription. AEW CEO and President Tony Khan as of late as been touting his strong relationship with WBD – who has also been touting the over 1 million viewers the network has seen for Dynamite since just after the All Out PPV.
Again, let’s say we see the Comcast-Warner Bros. Discovery merger go through. Could the entertainment giant make history and have two major competing wrestling companies on their networks, including Peacock? There is the anti-trust laws and legislation which was put in place by congress and other government entities to ensure fair competition, such as market allocation, bid rigging, price fixing, and monopolies.