Valuetainment
“This Could KILL CNN” - Paramount-Warner Merger Creates 200M Subscriber Streaming GIANT
05 Mar 2026
Chapter 1: What is the potential impact of the Paramount-Warner merger?
So Paramount merger could create streaming behemoth with 200 million subscribers. And if they combine HBO Max, Paramount to challenge Netflix, which would be the plan. Rob, is this the update of the news? Yes, sir.
Go for it. Paramount Skydance announcing plans to combine Paramount Plus and HBO Max. Just three days ago, HBO's parent company, Warner Bros.
Chapter 2: Can the new streaming giant challenge Netflix?
Discovery, agreed to be acquired by Paramount. CEO David Ellison says the combination will boost their subscriber base to 200 million. Federal regulators still need to approve that merger.
That's a real number right there while this is taking place. And Paramount, debt to its $79 billion after Warner Bros. deal, no plan to sell cable assets. And Warner Brothers, Discovery CEO Zaslav calls Paramount pivot whiplashy as $110 billion deal takes shape. So which clip is this, Rob? This is about the $79 billion debt. That's okay.
Chapter 3: What challenges does Paramount face with its existing debt?
So, Tom, as we're going through this next phase, do you think there's going to be anything that's going to prevent this from happening? Or it's pretty much Paramount's property, that's it? Well, if you listen to Netflix and Ted Sarandos, well, I didn't end up meeting at the White House, and I think the president had his thumb on the scale. Come on, Ted. You know, that's loser talk.
You didn't get the deal. You didn't get it done. Ted said that? Yeah. He didn't say thumb on the scale. He said they had favor with the White House. They're meeting with the White House. I don't know what you want me to do. We were always had our our our number. This is what we had to do.
But Ted is exactly you look at his quotes and tell me, does that sound like a guy who is a little bitter and maybe lost a deal? Yes, it does. I haven't seen it to make a real judgment on it. Can you see he did a clip or an article? It was articles. Just look at Ted's quote. Look at Ted Sarandos' quotes in the last 96 hours. He didn't meet with the president.
Chapter 4: How might the merger affect CNN and its future?
He actually went to the president and was told, I'm sorry, sir, your meeting has been canceled. Really? That's correct. So the president canceled the meeting last minute? Interesting. He's got a few other bigger things on shortly after arriving at the White House that his meeting was canceled. He's in the waiting room. I'm sorry, sir. Would you like a coffee? Yeah, you can go.
Trump's in the war room. Sorry. And so things like this, he was saying, was I ever going to meet with Trump? No, he had a you know who they had set him up with? Susie Wiles and Pam Bondi. Well, why don't you talk about your concerns in the Federal Trade Commission with the attorney general and Susie Wiles? That's what they told them. And he wasn't going to get the meeting with the president.
And all the media was saying, he's going to the White House. What does this say, though? What does this say to you, Tom? It says that Trump had no desire to really listen, give ear to Netflix. You can talk about desires and intentions later. But the president was busy with Iran and planning. And no, I'm not giving you my ear. Mark, where are you at with this?
Yeah, I mean, I would agree with that. I mean, Trump made it pretty apparent that he didn't want to be involved in this deal. You know, it's easy. I love what you said. That's loser talk. You know, you want to make excuses for why you didn't get the deal, right? You're always trying to find the blame. And so I think that's really what it comes down to, you know, from a...
An interesting lens, Jeff Park put out this paper, and he called it The Death of the Value Investor and the Rise of the Ideological Investor. And he talked about how the Benjamin Graham world, the Warren Buffett world is gone. Nobody invests on value anymore. They invest on their ideology. So Bud Light puts Dylan McGee, stock price goes down, and Cracker Barrel, right? Yeah, pro crap.
Jeff Park's amazing. And so he talked about, like, Sidney talks about great genes, and then American Eagle goes up. Well, he has stocks. And so when I look at this, I like some of the shows on Paramount. I don't like what Netflix has done. So from an ideological side, to me, you know, it's like, wow, I'm kind of glad that deal happened. But I would just say, I would say it's loser talk.
The deal, they were outbid, and that's kind of all there was to it.
Well, I mean, if you look at the history of Netflix, Obama's, you know, politics, Susan Rice, you know, you kind of know no matter how much they try to play politics. By the way, did Netflix give a million dollars for the inauguration?
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Chapter 5: What insights do insiders provide about the mood at CNN?
I don't know if Netflix was part. I know Amazon did. I know Meta did. I know quite a few people did. But did Netflix participate in that or no? Can you say the Netflix inauguration? I don't know if they were. Remember the time of the inauguration? It's like everybody went to a bar mitzvah where you didn't like the kid, but you gave his dad an envelope anyway. Sure, yeah.
So that was kind of like the inauguration. So inauguration, there's no evidence that Netflix donated a million dollars. Reports come from that. Other major tech companies, including Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, all gave a million-dollar contribution.
They should have donated.
Well, I mean, you have to realize, as crazy as it sounds, These things matter. They pay attention to it. They're watching to see, hey, are you going to be a – because it was like, well, no, we want to play neutral. We don't want to say that we're on this side or this or that. Amazon did. Meta did. Facebook did. Altman did. And I know it's like, well, Pat, that's exactly the problem.
Pay for play. Then get rid of it. Until you get rid of it, both sides are going to be doing it. Then what do you do? You sit on the sidelines and not say anything.
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Chapter 6: What restructuring might occur within CNN post-merger?
By the way, Jake Tapper came out and said the following about – You know, CNN will be affected by Paramount's looming takeover of the network. Rob, is this the clip? Yes, sir. Go for it.
Moments ago, Netflix said it is declining to raise its offer for the purpose for the purchase of Warner Brothers Studios and HBO following the Warner Brothers Discovery Board's determination that Paramount, which is not just going for. Warner Brothers Studios and HBO, but also the whole enchilada, including us here at CNN.
Paramount has submitted a superior offer, according to Warner Brothers Discovery's board. As I've noted, Warner Brothers Discovery is the parent company of CNN. So let's get right to CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter. So let's start with the question. He's fired up. Why did Netflix walk away?
Ted Sarandos and others in Netflix made it very clear they really wanted Warner Brothers Studios and they really wanted HBO.
They didn't want you. In this corporate tug of war, it seems Netflix has suddenly let go of the rope. There's a lot, of course, that could still happen here. But the big news this afternoon is that Paramount suddenly is in a much stronger position to take over CNN and the rest of the WarnerBuzz Discovery Company, which includes HBO and the WarnerBuzz Movie Studio.
So they asked insiders. at CNN. CNN Insider told Fox News Digital, which is kind of weird, but CNN Insider told Fox News Digital, the mood is horrific, people are very upset. A second CNN insider staffer said, a mix of despair, apprehension, and curiosity. Look, I think this is a place that has gone through a lot, a lot of mergers in the past decade, a lot of fresh starts.
The insider said, I think there's an underlying fear of mixing two news divisions. Who is going to get camp? Of course they're going to be worried about it, Tom. Do you think there is going to be a massive restructure of getting rid of certain people like Stelters? I thought Stelter got fired. I don't know how he's back now. I keep forgetting he's still employed.
And then all of a sudden he pops up on the news. Look, here's what you have. You have to look at these as assets. Look at those as divisions. Look at those as product lines. That is the way the Ellisons look at this. Read all the things when they have talked deep. Puck has covered it. Information has covered it. You can read some of the things that they've said. And they're looking at this.
They didn't buy this not to do anything with it. Netflix didn't want the cable nets. They were going to be left so that Zazz could put them together in a tracking stock. Throw it to the dogs on the market and watch it like a cheap SPAC start at $10 and slowly drift to $5 because there's nothing there. There's no cash being formed. There's no value being formed. Cable subs are going down.
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Chapter 7: How does the merger reflect changes in the media landscape?
We've seen the quotes. And at the Allen Conference, it's like Zazz walking up and opening his jacket. You're walking down the street in New York. Want to buy a copy watch? You know, it's like he's trying to sell CNN. And he hasn't been able to get any buyers. They were trying to spin it off. Strong reports indicated he was reminding people that, like, Kaitlyn Collins was on a rookie deal.
She wasn't on one of these legacy 20-year super expensive deals trying to sell it. And so what are the Ellisons going to do? I think the old guys, like what we're hearing here, Brian and... And our friend Tapper, you know what? I think that they've had their time. I think they're going to reconstitute it. I think Tapper still has a place.
I think the people you have to get... If you're building a news station, You don't get rid of center left, center right, middle. You get rid of the – there was a girl on CNN the other day. I was watching this, and I think she works for CNN. Rob, I don't know if you've seen this or not. She said a convicted rapist – did you see this one?
That they try to correct her over and over, and she eventually was like – she lost her shit. And CNN's like, listen, you can't talk like that. I'll find it to show you. You have to get rid of the people that are saying stuff that makes absolute – No sense. But, Jeff, what do you think is going to happen with this?
You think CNN is going to go through a massive... If the deal closes, how nasty do you think it's going to be for CNN?
I think Paramount is going to shut CNN down. Shut CNN down? Yeah. There's no value in it. I mean, Tom, you just spent five minutes talking about how CNN is valueless. It has no value. And the value is not going to suddenly rise in the future. Everybody's moving away from cable television and cable news, so... You milk what you can out of it.
You take whatever parts are good enough to move to other parts of the division. And CNN as a brand, let's face it, completely tarnished, that's never coming back. Certainly to people on the right. Somebody on the right is never going to watch CNN again, other than maybe, you know.
Scott Jennings is a stud. Scott does a good job. He's not going to stay there. Let's be honest. He's not going to stay there. He just re-signed his contract. I think six months ago he signed a new contract with them. Perhaps, but somebody could offer more money. No, he did.
So I think eventually what happens is Paramount says we're done with CNN. Okay, so let me push back. It's not really about CNN.
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for news networks in a digital age?
Got it. You don't use the old legacy framework, which is no longer viable.
Let's be honest.
It's no longer viable.
No, I agree. I agree. You know, for me, I get invited to shows. I'm having dinner with a couple guys. They're like, hey, how come you don't come back to our Fox anymore? I said, dude, I come... Why would you? Let me tell you what I said to them. I don't mind going to these shows, but here was my problem. I said, look, I don't live on TV.
I come to your show, I know who the audience is, and you guys don't cut the clip on YouTube or X. Why am I coming to your show? It's a waste of my time to sit till 9.30 to do a four-minute clip, and then all of a sudden you're not posting the clip for two or three days. I have no interest. I have better things to do. So they have to also realize...
what they need to do to attract the younger people to come on, that you need to get to their audience where their audience is at. Some that do, great, let's roll. Some that don't, why would it continue coming back on?
Well, I would say the point that Jeff made, I mean, that model is dead. The rails are gone. And what I think about specifically is the network model. And so where it lives supreme is at the airport. Or, you know, where it is. The doctor's office. In the hotel lobby. Right. I was, you know, I had to go get some passport stuff. I'm sitting in the office and it sits there all day and it just runs.
But the network model is mostly dead. Today it's on demand. I see a show I want. I watch the show. I turn it back off. Or save it for later. Just-in-time information, right? And so I watch what I want to watch.
And then the day of having a network that just runs 24-7 and I sit there and watch the program and it's over, yeah, like I said, the old people, they have their TV on all day or at the airport. That's coming to an end. The model's dead.
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