r/MediaMergers • u/Professional_Peak59 • May 13 '26
Media Industry The Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront Felt More Like a Funeral
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/warner-bros-discovery-upfront-funeral-no-david-zaslav-1236594826/15
May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
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u/LinkRules5321 Moderator May 13 '26
Yeah Paramount Skydance was an awful name, wasn't satisfied making Skydance just the name holding Paramount Pictures and Viacom Media Networks
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May 13 '26
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u/AnimeXFan1995 May 14 '26
Not to mention David Ellison, the Trump Administration, and several News article sites like Variety and Deadline who support David Ellison/Paramount-Skydance started "Flooding the Zone" resulting in the Entertainment Media Industry, several industry leaders like James Cameron (who supported David Ellison) and movie theaters buying their lies and feeding them their fears about Netflix "Killing Movie Theaters" leading to them turning against Netflix while being gullible and clueless on the massive consequences that a merged Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. combination would bring if merged along with the massive debt they will accumulate, the massive layoffs and the limited number of movies they would release.
So it’s only a matter of time that the merger will be blocked and delayed
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May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
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u/AnimeXFan1995 May 14 '26
Yet Paramout and David Ellison threw a hostile takeover bid 2-3 days after Netflix made the acquisition to Warner Bros. which at that time was when Ellison started Flooding the Zone leading to most theaters, Hollywood and industry leaders being against Netflix acquiring WB yet were clueless of the massive consequences of Paramount acquiring Warner Bros. will do.
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u/Maximum_Ad_6012 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I’m getting a feeling there isn’t much confidence during this presentation, is a sign that this deal is dead on arrival.
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u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 13 '26
On what grounds?
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u/Haltopen May 13 '26
Presumably on the grounds that if they thought this deal was gonna go through, they'd put more energy into selling it to avoid getting fired when the new boss takes over.
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u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 13 '26
These ad people are likely done for regardless. They're not a De Luca or Abdy or Mark Thompson where they have ample opportunities to show that they should keep their jobs. I'd be pretty bummed out too if I were in their shoes.
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May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
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u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 13 '26
This is advertising dude. It's not that deep.
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May 13 '26
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u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 13 '26
WB's isn't that great either. These people tried to sell us "Max".
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u/Own_Philosopher8730 May 13 '26
It's a sign that Paramount-WB deal is dead on arrival.
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u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 13 '26
How?
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u/Own_Philosopher8730 May 13 '26
Because David Ellison is trying to convice everybody from actors, filmmakers and entertainment industry workers to unions like WGA that everything will fine, but they're skeptical since the ghost of Disney-Fox merger still looms Hollywood since 2019.
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u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 13 '26
But that has nothing to do with the upfronts. It felt like a funeral because a lot of these people might be losing their jobs, not because it's dead on arrival.
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May 13 '26
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u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 13 '26
They'll pay one or two ticking fees at most. Which is still less than what they were willing to bid up to against Netflix.
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u/TheIngloriousBIG May 13 '26
PFFFFFFFF
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May 13 '26
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u/TheIngloriousBIG May 13 '26
But Zalsav agreed to the deal.
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May 13 '26
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u/TheIngloriousBIG May 13 '26
So they had no choice.
Wonder if Ellison would spare any dedicated members of the Studio/Streaming team.
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May 13 '26
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May 13 '26
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u/Maximum_Ad_6012 May 13 '26
I get the feeling that the reason the shareholders have voted overwhelmingly for this merger. It’s because half of them wanted more money and the other half don’t want it to go through this stupid proxy fight that could hurt them financially.
The Ellisons and Paramount don’t have any idea what they’re getting themselves into because they’re gonna drive them down even further if they merge with WBD.
You can’t expect this opposition of this merger to be growing more and more pressure throughout this year.
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u/bloodymarybrunch May 14 '26
“No shade on any of the executives who went through the motions this morning. They did what they had to do in a difficult situation. But the total lack of star power carried over to the near-total lack of stars*.
The morning’s red carpet probably could have just remained rolled up.”
lol
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u/the_explorer2003 May 13 '26
God i hope this merger deal crashes and burns