It appears Paramount is in position to clear one of the regulatory hurdles necessary to complete its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
According to a report by Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami in Semafor, “US antitrust regulators appear ready to approve Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery after a two-hour meeting Tuesday at the Justice Department, where Paramount CEO David Ellison reiterated a commitment to releasing movies in theaters.”
The news comes amid an internal timeline targeting the third quarter of 2026 for a combination of operations. Should everything go according to plan for Paramount, CBS Sports and TNT Sports would begin working under one umbrella at that time.
Even with federal regulators seeming to take a favorable view towards the transaction, state regulators seem to be taking a harder line towards the takeover bid. Paramount is reportedly gearing up for a battle in California, where state attorney general Rob Bonta plans to investigate the merger. New York is likely to join, as are several other states.
Per Puck legal analyst Eriq Gardner, Paramount’s effort to push its deal over the finish line is also facing a private antitrust lawsuit filed on behalf of a group of streaming consumers. The lawyer in this case is pushing for a preliminary injunction that threatens to halt the merger before any operations begin to combine.
All this to say, even if the Department of Justice signs off, there are still other legal battles Paramount will likely have to face.
However, if the transaction is approved and a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery becomes reality, the company’s bulked-up sports division will become a major player in the market for sports rights. A combined CBS Sports and TNT Sports would hold rights for the NFL, college football, all of March Madness, MLB, NHL, PGA Tour, the Masters, the French Open, NASCAR, WNBA, UFC, and more. Paramount chief David Ellison has already shown a propensity to throw down major coin on sports rights, paying $7.7 billion over seven years for the UFC just days after formally acquiring Paramount.
If a merger becomes formalized in the third quarter, we could soon begin to see changes in how the sports division operates. For instance, UFC fights could start airing on TNT. Other programming could start shifting around.
First thing first, Paramount needs to receive the requisite approvals. While the Justice Department seems amenable to the transaction now, “Talks remain ongoing, and the department’s analysis could change,” Semafor reports.
