Disney (left) CEO Bob Iger and Comcast (R) CEO Brian Roberts.
Getty Images
Ho, ho, ho! This is a holiday season tradition. Anonymous media executive makes industry predictions for 2025.
To celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, we bring you 12 predictions from some of the world’s most influential media and entertainment executives. On condition of anonymity, we will be speaking candidly about our vision for the year ahead. And since we have Holiday Cheer, we’re giving you a bonus. Baker’s dozen!
Looking back at our predictions for 2024, they weren’t as good as the previous year. But there were also some hits, or partial hits.
meanwhile Warner Brothers Discovery Max, Netflix and disney Max and Disney did indeed collaborate, though not everyone collaborated for the first significant streaming bundle, as one participant predicted last year. As another executive predicted, the TV broadcasting group continued to take away rights to regional sports. RedBird Capital wasn’t able to complete the acquisition paramount globalbut the private equity firm was part of a consortium with Skydance, which announced a merger with the company in July.
In other 2024 predictions, Nelson Peltz and Jay Laslo did not win their activist campaigns to join the Disney board. Disney CEO Bob Iger did not renew his contract beyond 2026, did not acquire Candle Media, and did not name Dana Walden as his successor. And NBA media rights are owned by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and apple — They are Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon.
Oh, there’s one more thing I missed: comcast announced it would spin off most of its cable networks, but it did not spin off NBCUniversal and merge it with Warner Bros. Discovery.
This is a great follow-up to this year’s predictions.
Executive 1: Comcast acquires Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets and merges with NBCUniversal.
Second time’s the charm! Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to separate its linear assets from the rest of the company. Comcast keeps most of its cable networks independent. That has to mean something, right?
Executive 2: Comcast buys Charter and spins off remaining NBCUniversal
Yes, Comcast may have SpinCo 1 and SpinCo 2. The executive predicts Comcast will try to combine America’s two largest cable companies, a decade after it tested Donald Trump regulators and abandoned its bid to buy Time Warner Cable. . Time Warner Cable was the second largest cable provider in the United States before being acquired by Time Warner Cable. Charter — Once the conclusion is reached, the government will block the deal.
Executive 3: Fox buys most of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets
After selling the majority of its entertainment assets to Disney in 2019, fox The executive says it will shake up the media world by expanding again and acquiring the streaming assets of HBO, movie studios, Turner Networks and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Unsurprisingly, given the uncertainty about the future of the Murdoch family trust, another executive predicted that Fox would sell.
Executive 4: Dana Walden won’t get CEO job and will leave Disney at the end of the year
Disney has already announced plans to delay naming a new CEO until early 2026, so this prediction assumes the company will make the announcement slightly earlier. Mr. Walden is the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, the ultimate Hollywood insider, and is seen by many as the top candidate for the job. The board is taking time to vet candidates after the 2020 transition from Mr. Iger to Bob Chapek did not go well.
A second executive said NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios Chairman Donna Langley would be considered for the job as a potential challenger to Walden and other internal candidates.
Dana Walden, Ryan Murphy, Bob Iger and FX Networks Chairman John Landgraf attend the premiere of Murphy’s limited series “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” on January 23, 2024. (from left).
Credit: Disney
Executive 5: Jeff Bezos will be bullied into selling the Washington Post after President Trump reveals his space company Blue Origin will suffer from the paper’s reporting
Mr. Bezos has said he is committed to the Post’s future, but the paper has been embroiled in drama this year. Perhaps 2025 will be the year Bezos decides he’s had enough of more headaches.
Executive 6: Several television station groups will sell themselves due to financial difficulties.
companies such as E.W. Scripps, Tegna and sinclair broadcast The company has seen its stock price slump in recent years as cord-cutting has lowered traditional pay-TV valuations. Executives at these companies are hopeful that the new Trump administration will pave the way for further consolidation. The executive speculates that some of them will be sold out of desperation, either to avoid bankruptcy or to gain needed scale.
Executive 7: The Trump administration relaxed TV station ownership rules, leading to CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox acquiring their own affiliates.
It’s a similar idea to the former, but the executive took the bolder step of saying that the acquirer of the station would be the broadcast network itself.
Paramount Global Headquarters, New York, August 27, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Executive 8: Paramount Global plans to buy Lionsgate after spinning off from Starz
If Paramount Global gets government approval to merge with Skydance Media next year, its new management will look to transform the business. One of the big moves the company makes is acquisitions. lions gate The executive said he will form a studio separate from Starz early next year.
Executive 9: Big tech company buys video game maker Electronic Arts
After having flirtations with both Comcast and Disney in recent years; electronic arts Expected to be sold in 2025 to a major technology company, including: Netflix, alphabetApple or Amazon, says this executive. It will follow the footsteps of microsoft Acquire Activision in 2023.
Executive 10: The industry-wide M&A hype is greatly overstated and deals will be far fewer than anyone thinks.
You are all wrong! The executive said predictions of M&A are generally not likely to come true because consolidation does not bring real solutions to an industry in transition.
Executive 11: Paramount+, Peacock, Max bundled
Executives from Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery have all gone on record saying they should explore options for streaming integration. What if there was a bundle with all three services? The executive speculated that the three services would be sold together through a hard bundle on one platform or at a discounted price. Masu.
Executive 12: Sports streaming service Venu will never launch and Fox plans to license its sports content to ESPN’s streaming service
Venu is a joint venture owned by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery that was announced to great fanfare earlier this year. However, the launch of the service has been delayed due to an antitrust lawsuit filed by Fubo. Meanwhile, ESPN plans to debut its “flagship” streaming service by fall 2025. The executive predicts that will cause companies to abandon Venu.
Executive 13: Kathy Kennedy leaves Lucasfilm
Kennedy has been president of Disney-owned Lucasfilm since 2012 and is now in his 70s. It may be time for a new leader in the Star Wars series.
May the strength be with you. Let’s see what 2025 brings. Have a great vacation!
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
