Tony Khan ‘thrilled’ Paramount outbid Netflix for Warner Bros Discovery

There are still hurdles that David Ellison and his team at Paramount Skydance will need to overcome before they can finalize their purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. After making the stakes too rich for Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, the Ellisons deal still needs to overcome challenges from blue state Attorney Generals (Attorneys General?), and win approval from the European Union. That could conceivably take years. But Paramount has already begun revealing plans for the merged company as part of efforts to get the $110 billion deal backed by Ellison’s father approved by all required entities.

Other than learning that their current streaming home of HBO Max is going to be absorbed into a superhub of Paramount-owned platforms, AEW hasn’t come up in any of those plans yet. In addition to streaming on HBO Max, the Tony Khan-owned pro wrestling promotion’s weekly shows air on WBD-owned TBS and TNT. Those media rights are covered under a contract that lasts through 2027 with a Warners option for 2028; WBD also owns an unknown-but-less-than-10% stake in AEW.

I am neither the owner of a pro wrestling ”challenger brand” nor an entertainment industry executive, but while I could see Khan preferring Warners go to one of the few big media companies not currently linked to WWE… UFC, which like WWE is owned by TKO, just inked a huge deal with Paramount. It’s been pretty clear that TKO would like there to not be any “challenger brands” in WWE’s or any of their spaces, so it wouldn’t surprise too many if they encouraged Paramount to move on from AEW, and maybe even to hamper their performance by moving them to less favorable time slots, etc. if they’re still under contract when Ellison gets to fully take charge.

That viewpoint was raised by other Meltzer sources. He writes in the WON:

Others are claiming it’s the death knell because Paramount, either to cut back on costs, or due to pressure from TKO given they have contracts with UFC and Zuffa Boxing, will get rid of TKO’s only real significant wrestling competition.

TK should hopefully have a better read on the situation than anyone outside of it, and got their current deal with WBD done when many said he wouldn’t be able to get anything close to it. We’ll judge him on that when this horrible-for-consumers, good-for-the-ultrarich-and-fascist-leaning deal is done.

You can certainly speculate though. Is Tony Khan right be “thrilled”, or are those predicting doom and gloom better forecasters?

_{* Something many believe Meltzer himself to be. Just want to say it before that topic inevitably inevitably comes up in the comments.}