Rumors Are Swirling CNN And CBS Will Merge

Rumors are swirling that CNN and CBS are soon to merge.

Warner Bros. and Paramount Global CEOs have met together in private to discuss a potential merger between the two companies.

Warner Bros. is the parent company of  CNN, and Paramount Global is the parent company of CBS’s other cable television assets.

The potential merger rumors are not the first time a potential merger deal has emerged between  Warner Bros and Paramount Global; back in 1998, the two companies discussed a potential merger deal, too.

A CNN+CBS News Tie-Up Would Radically Transform the Industry
The cable network and broadcaster held merger talks years ago. A possible mega-deal between Warner Bros. and Paramount could bring those ideas to the forefront again.
Report by @alexweprin https://t.co/sj4DmPTIj4

— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) December 23, 2023

Per CNN:

Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav met on Tuesday with Paramount Global Chief Executive Bob Bakish, and they broached a potential merger between the two companies, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

A potential merger of the two media giants would create an entertainment and news juggernaut, encompassing Warner Bros. and Paramount studios as well as CBS, CNN, and other cable television assets.

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The discussion over lunch, which was first reported by Axios, took place at Paramount’s global headquarters in New York City’s Times Square.

A CNN/CBS News merger would create the single largest Government Propaganda machine the world has ever seen. Joseph Goebbels could not even have envisioned something like this. The truth would further deteriorate. https://t.co/cF2Ko1UcMD

— Quintessential American🇺🇸 God,Family,1A,2A🇺🇸 (@Gibson5972) December 23, 2023

Here’s what The Hollywood Reporter shared:

At the turn of the millennium, when Microsoft still owned 50 percent of MSNBC, and before Fox News cemented itself as ratings leader post-9/11, CNN was cable news king.

Sure, the broadcast networks still had vast audiences, but the economics of CNN were vastly superior, with its lucrative and enduring cable carriage fees (it turns out that 2000 was just about the peak of pay TV, with around 100 million homes paying for cable or satellite), and its robust advertising business.

CNN’s unparalleled strengths: Its vast newsgathering resources, its ubiquity on TV sets in the U.S. and around the world, and its sterling reputation among consumers, led to an idea at the time that intrigued executives at Viacom, which had acquired CBS in 1999: A merger of CNN and CBS News.

The idea, according to an executive involved in the talks at the time, would have seen CNN effectively take over CBS News. Sure, CBS News programs like 60 Minutes and the CBS Evening News would still air, but the expensive newsgathering and behind-the-scenes operations could be handled by CNN, which was already operating around the world.

That plan did not go over well inside CBS News, as then-marquee anchor Dan Rather once remarked to The Hollywood Reporter back in 2001 when the notion was bandied about. But the cost synergies were real: three years earlier, when a CBS-CNN tie-up was earlier reported in 1998, Wall Street analysts suggested that $200 million in savings a year could be realized from a pact.

Warner Bros. has discussed buying Paramount Global to create an entertainment titan that would marry CNN, CBS, and HBO. https://t.co/tQ6WPAo0Jp

— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) December 21, 2023