{"id":877450,"date":"2026-10-10T12:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T12:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877450\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T12:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T12:42:21","slug":"cbs-sports-tnt-sports-merger-expected-to-be-bloodbath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877450\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS Sports-TNT Sports merger expected to be ‘bloodbath’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Skydance merger is done \u2014 and now the fallout begins.<\/p>\n

Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are now a single company<\/a>, meaning CBS Sports and TNT are bringing their complicated web of sports broadcasting rights under one roof, and it\u2019s not going to be pretty.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody assumes it\u2019s gonna be a bloodbath,\u201d one top sports business executive told Puck\u2019s John Ourand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"CBSA CBS end zone pylon during an NFL football game between the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Getty Images<\/p>\n

CBS comes to the table with the rights to NFL, March Madness, The Masters and UFC, while TNT, in its post-NBA world, holds MLB and NHL rights, ESPN sublicenses for the College Football Playoff and Big 12 football and basketball, in addition to a $650 million deal to carry the French Open through 2034.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that Skydance probably has more sports rights than it needs,\u201d LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield told Ourand. \u201cAll of the things that TNT Sports was doing to scramble to fill the hole that the NBA left -\u2014 Skydance doesn\u2019t need those rights anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leadership changes have already begun<\/a>, with TNT\u2019s head of sports Luis Silberwasser having exited, while CBS\u2019 David Berson ascends to chairman of the Skydance sports group following the $111 billion merger.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid\u2019s role at first is to be honest with his people, and not hide,\u201d the sports business exec said. \u201cAnd over the next month or two, the final entity will start to take shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TNTTNT sports microphones during the Gallagher PREM Final match between Northampton Saints and Exeter Chiefs. Getty Images<\/p>\n

There is expected to be significant downsizing, both in terms of rights \u2014 TNT\u2019s annual $700 million worth of MLB and NHL deals expire in 2028 \u2014 and staffing, with the sides needing to find $6 billion of promised synergies.<\/p>\n

Ourand posits that strategic spending will be key, especially with CBS\u2019 current $2.1 billion NFL rights deal<\/a> only getting more expensive when they\u2019re up for renewal after the 2029 season. One place Skydance could look is the Premier League in an effort to grow its international audience.<\/p>\n

The breadth of merger\u2019s full effect on sports fans will take a while to seen, though some clarity already exists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know two things will happen,\u201d said a source with knowledge of Skydance\u2019s strategy. \u201cNumber one, Skydance is going to have to pay the NFL more in a couple years, and it has to cover that added cost somewhere. And number two, Skydance needs to come up with $6 billion of synergies \u2014 and a big chunk of that will come from content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buckle up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Skydance merger is done \u2014 and now the fallout begins. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[991,10815,349,3094,99,1625,3015,26277],"class_list":["post-877450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-cbs","tag-media","tag-nfl","tag-skydance","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-sports-media","tag-tnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}