The big news of the day is, obviously, reports that Paramount is planning a bid to buy Warner Bros. This isn’t really surprising as there have been rumors about this for some time. But, it is interesting to see it all firming up.
The deal, which is still far from being done, would see brands like HBO, DC, CNN, and more brought under the umbrella of Paramount, which controls broadcaster CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV, MTV, Nickelodeon, and many more.
The two companies are mostly complementary. I mean… look at these towers side by side…
There was a lot of attention on CNN and CBS News being brought together, but you know what I think is a bit more interesting than that…
The Ellison patriarch Larry Ellison, this week the world’s richest man, has reportedly been very interested in a bid for TikTok. The idea of that being brought under the umbrella of son David Ellison’s Paramount is fascinating enough, but the idea of CNN being integrated into TikTok has me vigorously rubbing my chin.
Again, one to watch. There’s no real news on this just yet, but Warner Bros stocks are up.
Foxtel upfronts 2026
Australian pay TV giant Foxtel held its 2026 upfronts presentation at a fancy venue in Sydney last night. As an intrepid reporter, I got along to see what they had to say and, in the spirit of journalism, have a beverage or two.
Being that it is Foxtel, the emphasis was very much on sports for the night on both Fox Sports, but especially Kayo. The big news for me there was that Kayo is upgrading its CTV app. The question I have is why Foxtel, which I understand plans to move the Kayo and BINGE apps over to the DAZN platform (with DAZN purchasing the business mid-year) in the coming months, is going through with it. But, I guess a product roadmap is going to product roadmap. I guess watch this space on that topic.
You can read about the 2026 sports lineup at Mediaweek. And then there’s the 2026 entertainment lineup at BINGE, which sounds interesting. BINGE (and Foxtel broadly) has a big HBO Max-sized content hole to fill. And I’m not entirely convinced that they have done it effectively, but there are some interesting originals and acquisitions that have me keen to watch.
I’m surprised that the title that really caught my interest is a reality format, a Foxtel/Channel 4 co-production called Apocalypse. And a shout-out to Foxtel’s Head of Unscripted Howard Myers-Rifai who regaled me with stories of working on a Russian adaptation of The Golden Girls a number of years ago. Wild.
You can read about the originals slate over at Mediaweek.
The most interesting announcement made last night was a partnership with gaming company Livewire. It will enable Foxtel to sell advertising in gaming environments like Roblox. It’s not especially exciting from a consumer standpoint, but it’s an interesting way for Foxtel to leverage its digital platforms to create unifi3ed advertising experiences on platforms beyond the owned and operated video platforms. Read about that and more in my article at Mediaweek.
Not mentioned at all during the night was hardware solution Hubbl. Which, we all know what that means.
News Desk
AMC is licensing more shows to Netflix, happy with the increased subscribers it is seeing on its own platform with viewers seeking new seasons. And they didn’t mention it, but the money is probably also appealing to them. Read: Deadline
Matthew Rhys is joining the cast of Presumed Innocent for season 2. Read: THR
Rainn Wilson reckons that if NBC had greenlit The Office spin-off The Farm, they would have made another billion dollars off of it. I guess it has been long enough for us to all forget that the backdoor pilot for it was pretty awful. Read: Variety
Graydon Carter is selling his occasionally interesting lifestyle newsletter Air Mail to Puck. Read: NYT
Production on Mr & Mrs Smith seems to have been paused indefinitely by Prime Video. Read: THR
Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-creator Francesca Sloane is on-board to write and produce Big Little Lies. Read: Variety
Apple TV+ has announced a second season for German drama Berlin ER. Read: thefutoncritic
MAGA is blaming a South Park episode for the killing of Charlie Kirk. Comedy Central has now pulled the episode. That is the one where dog murdering apologist Kristi Noem murders a lot of dogs. Read: THR
DC has cancelled comic book Red Hood after one issue following tweets critical of Charlie Kirk by its trans writer Gretchen Felker-Martin. It’s what free-speech warrior Kirk would have wanted. Read: THR
Foundation has been renewed for a fourth season at Apple TV+. Read: THR
The Bold & The Beautiful is set to feature its first gay couple. Ooooh, edgy. Read: Deadline
That’s the newsletter for today.
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I was surprised that Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was announced as airing for another year on Foxtel at the upfronts. I'm sure this is due to some grandfathered contract clause or something. But HBO Max would be even more of a draw to me with Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Lucky I can use my parents' Foxtel credentials. Been watching The Paper on Foxtel On Demand too which is the first piece of content I've really watched on Foxtel apart from live sports and LWTWJO in quite a while.
Matt Belloni will be pissed if Paramount acquires WBD I reckon. He hates when we lose another movie studio to consolidation as two become one.