• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Today

Paramount Skydance reportedly has an alternative plan, intended to appease some U.S. states in terms of all regulatory and possible court filings, as it continues to absorb Warner Bros. Discovery.

That plan would be to sell off the kids cable TV networks Nickelodeon (owned by Paramount) and The Cartoon Network (owned by WBD). This came from a report in Cord Cutter News.

On the surface, this does not seem like much of a concession when it comes to overall anti-trust, anti-competitive concerns that a number of states have -- led by California and New York --  preparing a lawsuit that opposes the deal.

States are more focused on whether the Paramount-WDB combination will reduce competition, increase dominance among a few studios, and mostly importantly, reduce job opportunities for producers, actors, writers, and production workers.

Initially, the premise of Paramount Skydance’s deal for Warner Bros. Discovery was to keep all cable networks, but it was reconfigured to work more efficiently in a rapidly changing digital environment. 

For many analysts, few believe there is much of a long-term upside in keeping cable TV networks around -- with financial declines resulting from continuing legacy pay TV cord-cutting. 

Interestingly, the Netflix bid for WBD was only for the company's movie/TV studio, and streamer HBO Max. It wanted no part of owning cable TV networks.

It is now somewhat ironic that Paramount Skydance figures that parting with a few cable networks would be good for the deal to be completed. This also makes WBD’s decision easier when analyzing the Netflix bid.

Much of the legacy TV kids audience will surely continue to move to other digital media -- to YouTube and other streaming platforms.

WBD may be hoping the deal will be soon closed completely, with the U.K. is still in the process of doing this.