For TNT Sports, the outcome of the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war looks to be acquisition by Paramount or a spinoff into an uncertain future.
Paramount, Comcast and Netflix each submitted nonbinding bids Thursday to acquire all or part of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to multiple reports, with Paramount the only one of the bidders known to be pursuing the company in its entirety.
WBD is expected to decide by the end of next month whether to complete the sale process or proceed with a planned spinoff of its linear cable networks — and debt — into a separate business. The company earlier this year reorganized into two divisions, a streaming and studios component consisting of the Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming service, and a global networks business consisting of linear cable platforms including the networks of TNT Sports.
Comcast and Netflix are reportedly bidding only for the streaming and studios division, meaning that for TNT Sports, the only outcome appears to be acquisition by Paramount or the uncertainty of being spun off into a standalone, cable-focused company a la Versant.
Paramount is seeking its second major merger in less than a year, having been acquired by the private equity firm Skydance after a protracted regulatory process over the summer. Acquisition of the WBD cable networks would give Paramount a wealth of additional sports rights — and a cable news network — but also saddle the company with businesses that all other major media companies are looking to shed.
By comparison, Comcast is spinning off its cable networks into the aforementioned Versant and evidently had no appetite to add a very similar slate of properties to its portfolio.
For the division once known as Turner Sports, the sale process is just the latest in a three-decade run of instability that began when its parent company was sold by Ted Turner to Time Warner in 1995. Time Warner’s ill-fated 2000 merger with AOL did not even last a decade, and in the years since that 2009 breakup, the company has been pursued by 21st Century Fox, acquired by AT&T, spun off into a new venture with Discovery, and now facing another acquisition or separation. [Related: 2014’s Media Consolidation Could Kill Turner Sports]
All the while, TNT Sports has remained for the most part unchanged. Even after losing its flagship NBA package last year, the company continues to produce its acclaimed “Inside the NBA” studio show — but for ESPN. And its various sports productions continue to bear the unique TNT “DNA” that its COO Craig Barry mentioned in a recent press release.
A merger with Paramount would combine TNT Sports with CBS Sports, a pairing with a long history. Beyond the obvious connection created by their joint coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the companies partnered on coverage of the Winter Olympics in the 1990s. Their respective news divisions have also had a long history of partnering.
And before it was acquired by Nexstar, CW was a combination of Time Warner’s WB Network and Paramount-owned UPN, run jointly by the two companies.
Given all of that history, it might not be surprising that the companies have on several occasions considered merging. That includes just two years ago, when WBD was interested in acquiring Paramount.