• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 23, 2025

So much is going on in the fast-changing world of Big Media right now that it takes one’s breath away.

Headlines in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal: “Warner Explores Selling Itself” (front page lead), “Netflix Earnings Gain As Ad Business Accelerates” (Section 2, front page lead), and “NBC Parent Makes Costly Hoops Bet As It Shoots for a Younger Audience” (Section 2, front page).

It is a big bet indeed -- $27 billion for 11 years of NBA rights -- with no expectation of making a profit for years, says the WSJ.

Projected losses for Comcast in the deal’s “early years” (as the WSJ characterizes them)? Answer: “Between $500 million and $1.4 billion annually,” says an unnamed source. 

Making such a huge investment in the knowledge that it will be a loser in the short term (they hope) is described in the story by unnamed “skeptics” as a “heave -- a desperation shot at the end of the game.”

“It’s a long-term deal,” said NBCU Media Group Chairman Matt Strauss in an interview with the paper. “We’re not trying to measure this based on quarters, but the next 10 years.”

Starting when? What does “short term” mean in this context? Two years, three years, six years? Hail Mary, indeed.

Now, Warner Bros. Discovery is up for sale -- the same company that missed out on an NBA package after partnering with the league for 36 years.

Perhaps WBD made an analysis of the likely profitability of a new rights package at the prices the NBA was demanding and decided that losing money from such an investment would not be in the best interest of its shareholders.

But now the entire company is for sale. with the goal of “maximizing shareholder value” said an official announcement on Tuesday.

The company “has initiated a review of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value, in light of unsolicited interest the Company has received from multiple parties for both the entire company and Warner Bros.,” the announcement said.

This is the best way to make shareholders happy? Sell the entire company?

True, WBD shares rose 11% Tuesday to $20.33 on Tuesday, providing “shareholder value” for a day.

But this sale is under discussion just three-and-a-half years after Discovery Networks bought Warner Bros. 

It was only 2022, which seems like only yesterday. Back then, the newly created company was billed as an entertainment behemoth, the likes of which no one had ever seen before.

Since then, the history of WBD has taken twists and turns. First, they tried to put the whole thing together to create a giant company whose many parts would work in seamless synergy with each other.

But this did not come out as hoped, and then the company completely reversed itself. Now, it is engaged in a process of undoing the synergy plan by splitting the company in two -- unmerging, so to speak.

And now it is for sale, with rumors that interested parties in all or part of WBD include Skydance, Netflix and even Versant, the new cable company spun off from NBCUniversal.

Skydance has so much money that the ink isn’t even dry yet on its takeover of Paramount, and they are already setting their sights on another one.

As for Netflix, the company has more money than God. 

What does this say about the state of television today? That the players with the deepest pockets will rule the universe.