The possible merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount could have some ripple effects on televised sports in the U.S.
Axios reported Wednesday that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish on Tuesday in New York City to discuss a possible merger.
What does this mean now for sports fans and what could it mean for the future?
The good news in this possible merger for college basketball fans is that CBS, the flagship of Paramount, which has been the home for March Madness since 1982, would be teaming up with TBS, TNT and TruTV, part of Warner Brothers Discovery and could be streamed as a package during the tournament.
Those networks already work together in televising the tournament, but putting them under one umbrella might be good for streaming. The current deal runs through 2032.
Now, if they offered a multi-screen option, we could watch every game at the same time.
The two companies’ networks have rights to most major sports and sports leagues — NCAA Tournament, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA Tour and NASCAR and the Big Ten Conference (the Southeastern Conference had been on CBS for years, but will move to ABC/ESPN starting next sports season).
Could a Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger be user-friendly? We’ll see
Combining forces could give the new company enough live sporting events to compete with ESPN/ABC, which could make a possible streaming service more competitive with the Disney+/ESPN+ packages.
When streaming came along, it was supposed to free consumers of cable packages. Something customers overpaid for and watched less than half of the content.
Instead, there are so many streaming networks that the public is paying at least as much, if not more, to cut the cord to get content they don’t consume.
A merger like this could help consolidate the bundles and be more user-friendly. But we’ll see.