{"id":331942,"date":"2026-03-06T11:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/331942\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:24:13","slug":"the-banijay-behemoth-europe-tests-paramount-wbd-snl-vs-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/331942\/","title":{"rendered":"The Banijay Behemoth, Europe Tests Paramount-WBD, \u2018SNL\u2019 vs. London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(The Ankler illustration; Shahfarshid\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

I cover int\u2019l TV from London. I wrote about Tubi U.K.\u2019s success with Gen Z<\/a>, Disney\u2019s scramble to catch up with Netflix<\/a> in global TV and the international fallout of Netflix\u2019s deal to acquire Warner Bros.<\/a> I\u2019m manori@theankler.com<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely fucking embarrassingly terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how one international staffer described to me the Feb. 27 Warner Bros. Discovery town hall where top brass appeared \u201cshell-shocked\u201d after Paramount Skydance emerged victorious with its $111 billion bid. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst was that a lot of people are understandably worried [about losing their jobs] and [CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels] is going, \u2018Oh, well, obviously it\u2019s hugely disappointing for me. I spent the last six months looking forward to being a CEO,\u2019\u201d notes the source (Wiedenfels was set to lead Discovery Global, the planned spinoff of WBD\u2019s cable properties, now moot). \u201cIt\u2019s like, fuck off. You\u2019ve got $144 million [when the sale closes]. You\u2019re never going to be worrying about feeding your kids or paying your mortgage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hello from London, where a tidal wave of M&A is hitting the industry from all sides \u2014 and unleashing a torrent of questions, anxiety and opportunism.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019ve got the international fallout from Paramount\u2019s shock acquisition and what Europe can \u2014 and can\u2019t \u2014 do about it; the creation of the world\u2019s largest independent TV studio, a true behemoth following Banijay\u2019s merger with All3Media (and the power struggle many see coming); and a look at Saturday Night Live\u2019s long-awaited U.K. debut on March 21 that has plenty of detractors. <\/p>\n

And nowhere will the new Paramount-WBD empire face more scrutiny than Europe\u2026<\/p>\n

Get 30% off a group subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Ankler illustration; Shahfarshid\/Getty Images) Share I cover int\u2019l TV from London. I wrote about Tubi U.K.\u2019s success…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-331942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}