Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Big media mergers could bring about a big reset for the TV studio business.
It happened after Disney acquired the assets of the Fox studio. It happened before and after the Skydance-Paramount merger. Now, with Paramount poised to take control of Warner Bros. Discovery, it could happen again with two of the most prolific TV studio operations in the industry.
Including co-productions, Warner Bros.’ various production units include: Television Group and Paramount Studios combined have more than 100 series currently airing or about to premiere and another 25 to 30 series either greenlit for future dates or in development. Studio production touches almost every part of the television landscape, from live broadcast to syndication, and includes shows ranging from… trance to Dora.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors approved the deal on Friday, but the merger still faces a potentially difficult road to regulatory approval, both domestically and abroad (Paramount is targeting the third quarter of this year to close the deal). Assuming all these hurdles were cleared, the combined TV studio operations would be gigantic, easily exceeding the size of any other studio. (This is not to mention the inconvenient array of streaming platforms, FAST channels, and cable outlets that the combined company will boast.)
This also assumes, of course, that the combined studio giant will do so Save Provide this number of shows, and that Warner Bros. Television Paramount TV Studios, CBS Studios and their various subsidiaries will continue to operate as they currently are. In short, this is unlikely.
For starters, Paramount will emerge from the deal with tens of billions of dollars in debt on its books. The company laid off more than 1,000 employees after the (much smaller) Skydance merger, and it would be foolish to think more wouldn’t come if the WBD merger closes. The combined Paramount-WBD company under David Ellison will no doubt look for “efficiencies” (i.e., cost-cutting via layoffs and acquisitions) across the television studio spectrum.
The debt load could also “change the calculus about how we monetize content,” said analyst Julie Clark, senior vice president of media and entertainment at TransUnion. Hollywood Reporter. “It will come down to standardizing their technology and how they connect with audiences and advertisers using the underlying IP that they have.”
The deal will result in a wealth of household-name properties under the Paramount umbrella. In addition to its own brands, which include Star Trek, Spongebob Which has just been revived GI Joe franchise, Paramount will eventually control Warner Properties DC Studios, the Harry Potter franchise — an HBO series based on the books set to debut in 2027 — and the Godzilla/Kong Monsterverse, which WB produces with Legendary Pictures, among others.
Without an in-house broadcast network and with WBD’s non-HBO cable channels mostly outside of scripted television, Warner Bros. TV has been the largest seller of software to other outlets in recent years. In addition to HBO and its streaming device HBO Max, the studio has series currently running or in the works on Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, Prime Video and all four major streaming networks — including CBS, which will become a sister company after the merger closes.
In its first public statement after WBD’s board approved the deal on Friday, Paramount said the combined company will operate Paramount and Warner Bros. film studios independently, and that it will continue to buy and sell to third parties. “I think eventually there will be a similar kind of volume” coming from the two studios, Clark said. “I think windows will become more important, especially for premium IP.”
However, Paramount’s statement did not mention any specific plans for how the TV studios would operate – but recent history suggests that change is on the horizon.
Following the Disney-Fox merger in 2019, the television studio’s operations underwent several reorganizations. Four studios (ABC Studios, ABC Signature, 20th Television, and Fox 21) immediately after the merger were whittled down to just one television, 20th Television, by October 2024.
The Paramount saga is even stranger: It closed Paramount TV Studios in August 2024 as a cost-cutting move in anticipation of the Skydance merger; Its productions moved to CBS Studios. A year later, when that deal was about to close, the company revived PTVS, restoring its former shows and incorporating the Showtime/MTV Entertainment shows — which had fallen by the wayside after the merger — and the previously independent Skydance TV shows.
Details of any potential reorganization may not emerge for several months, as Paramount will have to be cautious in its public comments until the deal is fully closed. Meanwhile, the two companies’ TV production units will continue to operate under this cloud of uncertainty.
