The News
The media business has never operated under the normal laws of economics, and investors are betting that a pair of media deals will breeze through regulatory review. First-round bids for Warner Bros. Discovery are due today, with Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix all expected to make some kind of offer, while local TV juggernaut Sinclair is trying to acquire its reluctant smaller rival, E.W. Scripps. Sinclair and Scripps — whose stock has doubled since Sinclair’s approach, which hasn’t been publicized but is an all-stock bid — have had informal, start-and-stop talks for more than a year, people familiar with the matter said.
Both deals run through FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and his boss in the White House. Carr is pro-station consolidation, though he has pushed other media companies to put in place newsroom oversight and shut down DEI plans. In this case, it’s a question of whether the president’s friends — Paramount owner Larry Ellison and the right-leaning Sinclair management — will have immunity, and what will be expected of them in return.
— Rohan Goswami
Notable
- Nexstar and Tegna’s shareholders moved to approve their merger earlier this week.