No, Paramount isn't bidding for WBD with sovereign wealth funds.
ALSO: Stranger Things joins the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Paramount has come out with a strong denial that it is forming an investment consortium with the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to submit a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
It follows a Variety report on a $71b bid being made for WBD:
Variety, citing anonymous sources, previously reported the Ellison family (which owns 100% voting control in Paramount Skydance) was putting together a $71 billion bid for WBD in conjunction with funds from three Arab countries: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
Of course, just because Paramount says it isn’t going down that route, it doesn’t mean that rival WBD bidder Comcast won’t.
The New York Times has a good piece today that explains who is likely to bid for WBD, what they stand to gain, and where there are business overlaps. (Variety has a similar article).
On Comcast, the NYT notes:
But Comcast has roughly $99 billion in debt, reducing its ability to make a lucrative cash offer to compete with Paramount. (Comcast has abundant free cash flow and is in good standing with its ratings agencies, meaning it could take on additional debt at favorable terms for a bid.)
WBD has asked for initial bids to be placed by Thursday, with claims it wants to be able to announce a winning bidder before Christmas.
Related: Worth a read today is
writing about efforts to rehab the image of Prince Mohammed bin Salman in her Substack:She writes:
Lots of people are ready to put bad things in the past. But are journalists ready to forget the brutal murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018? Not so fast.
She then goes deeper into the contentious media event held in the Oval Office today, which led to the short-fingered president saying that the US ABC should lose its broadcast license for asking MBS questions about the ghastly murder of Khashoggi (and also asking Trump questions about Epstein… one suspects that he cares more about one of these issues than the other).
What caught my interest was this nugget from Atkinson:
These are all unpleasant topics that a lot of people who want to do more business with Saudi Arabia would like to forget, but can they? Today, AlphaSights, a research firm, working on behalf of an unnamed European think tank is offering to pay for a 45 minute consultation with media industry journalists. Their client wants to know about, “perceptions surrounding Saudi investments into entertainment and/or sports.” The email received today left reporters shrugging their shoulders.
I wonder who the client is exactly…
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is now about pop culture experiential events
We don’t see much of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage here in Australia. Top level, one should ask: “Why would we?”, but also, we get so many random US cultural events broadcast on local TV that I’m surprised that this one doesn’t turn up on a network somewhere - even if pre-recorded and just playing on a multichannel on a Sunday morning well after the event.
On a complete tangent, I do wonder why the Adelaide Christmas Pageant has never become more of a thing. As an event, it’s the closest thing Australia has to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, though it is considerably smaller and more community-minded, befitting of a smaller city like Adelaide.
I could imagine a situation where a larger city stages its own similar event, puts it on later in the day so it leads into the evening and makes a far bigger deal out of it with greater corporate sponsorship.
But, I digress…
The news today is that this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will include new giant balloon characters:
And joining the parade this year will be a Stranger Things float. As per Variety:
“The Duffer brothers have been on it the whole time,” Kennedy says. “This is such a cool departure from saying, ‘Hey, 3D print me something from a film.’ What we’re doing here is creating a world. This is fully experiential.”
The float will feature the Hawkins National Laboratory. “There’s a containment device meant to contain an eight and a half foot tall Demogorgon puppet,” he adds. “That size is really in the wheelhouse of parade and continuing the legacy of Tony Sarg’s puppetry in the parade.”
The float itself will feature practical effects, including lighting and smoke effects. “It’s the laboratory come to life.” Kennedy teases that there are easter eggs within the design of the float. In addition to that, Foreigner, whose music featured prominently in the show, will be performing on 34th Street.
Other new characters will include: Buzz Lightyear, Mario, Shrek and Pac-Man. KPop Demon Hunters and Labubu will also be represented in the event.
News Desk
Neve Campbell has joined the cast of Black Doves for its second season. Read: THR
Twisted Metal has been renewed for a third season at Peacock. Read: Deadline
Beyond Entertainment head of scripted Melinda Wearne will join Australia’s ABC as head of children’s and family. Read: IF
Netflix has given the greenlight to Peter Morgan’s new adaptation of The Boys From Brazil. The limited series will star Jeremy Strong and Gillian Anderson. Read: THR
Fox News has been working with Palantir for the past year to build a suite of custom AI newsroom tools alongside its journalists. Read: Axios
BBC has commissioned a 10-episode David Nicholls adaptation of The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾. It will be the second time the book has been adapted, following the ITV show in the 80s. Read: BBC
The BBC are changing its iPlayer internal team structure, putting at risk up to 80 jobs. Read: Deadline
Line of Duty will be back at the BBC for a seventh season. Read: Deadline
Keith Stuart looks back at the SEGA Master System as it reaches its 40th anniversary. Read: The Guardian
Warner Bros Television are getting into video podcasts, with a dedicated video podcast studio being built on the studio lot. It seems that they are using this more as a way to create programming to promote WB projects - HBO Max has already been producing companion podcasts for its shows. Read: Deadline
The Simpsons saw longtime background character Alice Glick killed off. It is the second time the character has died on the show. Read: TV Insider
Trailer Park
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft returns for season 2 on Netflix Dec 11.
Fugue State 1986 is coming soon to Netflix
In 1986, a brutal massacre committed by a single man shook Colombia. Inspired by those events comes ‘State of Flight 1986,’ a miniseries that explores the origins of evil and the thin line between madness and reason.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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