Paramount Might Merge With Warner Bros. Discovery, And People Are Already Worried What David Zaslav Will Do To It

The year of our Lord 2023 has been a big one for David Zaslav. The once obscure media mogul has become Hollywood’s most notorious player, and if he wasn’t hissable already he made sure over the last 12 months to become downright Bond villain-worthy. He was the booed-at face of the studios during the two-pronged strike that crippled the industry. He further messed up the once thriving HBO Max. He cancelled some more movies. There’s only a week-and-a-half left in the year, and if you think he won’t throw one more gallon of gas on the bonfire, guess again.

— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) December 20, 2023

Axios is reporting that Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish on Tuesday. What did the two talk about Merging their companies, which, like most in the industry, are kind of struggling these days. Turns out the masses don’t particularly enjoy having to pay each entertainment company a monthly fee for endless “content” musical chairs. As such, if their meeting really happened, and if it goes through, you might see a super-streamer that combines Max and Paramount+.

Some other possibilities from the potential merger, per Axios:

• WBD could use its international distribution footprint to boost Paramount’s franchises, while Paramount’s children’s programming assets could be essential to WBD’s long-term streaming ambitions.

• CBS News could be combined with CNN to create a global news powerhouse. CBS’ crime dramas, such as “NCIS” and “Criminal Minds,” could be combined with Investigation Discovery and TruTV.

• CBS Sports’ footprint could be combined with WBD’s. For example, CBS and WBD’s Turner Sports currently share TV rights for March Madness.

Forget how exhausted consumers must be of mergers (and in an age when the federal government could always break up ever-swelling monopolies, as they once used to do). People’s initial reaction was this: Here’s another reason to suspect David Zaslav would have more good things to destroy.

— Rendy (@rendy_jones) December 20, 2023

If Zaslav comes out of this on too, we can kiss the studio system goodbye. This guy just wants money; he couldn’t care less about telling a good story or media preservation.

Indie projects are the future. https://t.co/auWJf6Py9Y