
CBS might
consider buying CNN -- should it be available as a result of a possible sale of Time Warner to 21st Century Fox.
"It's something I'm sure we'll look at if it becomes available," said Les
Moonves, president/chief executive officer of CBS, speaking to reporters at the Television Critics Association on Thursday.
Moonves added: "We've always talked about doing things with CNN
in the past," referring to possible joint venture operations of the CNN and CBS News division, which have been rumored in the past.
How about Time Warner itself? Not likely. Moonves says
Time Warner in terms of market capitalization is much larger than CBS -- making it harder to make a deal.
On Wednesday, news broke that 21st Century Fox had made an $80 billion cash and
stock offer for Time Warner. Fox would need to divest CNN to avoid antitrust concerns.
The New York Times first broke the news of the Fox move on Time Warner.
Analysts believe the
two companies make for a more compatible TV/movie/digital entertainment media company -- as both have recently separated from their respective print media operations.
Moonves believes that
amassing more TV sports properties is one major reason for 21st Century Fox to move toward Time Warner, which would add NBA, among other sports to its roster.
CBS, along with Time Warner
and a number of media companies, witnessed higher-spiking stock prices on the news of 21st Century Fox’s buying intentions of Time Warner
advertisement
advertisement
.
While getting more sports properties is certainly one of the factors, the International benefits for the Fox media empire would also be significant. As for the domestic scene, the addition of the Turner entertainment channels would also balance out the Fox cable ad revenue and carriage fee streams which, at this point, are dominated by its older skewed cable news operations.