The thing about Paramount beating out Netflix for the rights to Warner Bros. is that in the long run, it really doesn’t matter. Not a popular opinion right now, but I am convinced the next few years will prove me right. Granted that from a “Golden Age of Television” POV, it would have been nice if Netflix won, but the reality is that the U.S. media industry as it currently exists is in a long slow spiral and many more mergers, some likely involving Netflix, will need to happen for it to win the battle against its well-funded opponents Google, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance and Meta. Because if “TV” is defined as “anything that’s watched on a TV set” (which is the way the vast majority of consumers seem to define it) then the legacy U.S. media companies are not currently well positioned to be anything other than Google Chow. Why It Matters Looking at the merger in the short term, the new ParahBO, which, as per Ellison Fils this week, will be one app, is well positioned against the rest of the streaming universe, including Netflix. It’s got a much wider range of programming options, with an impressive array of sources to draw from:
BET CBS CBS News CBS Sports CNN Comedy Central Discovery Food Network HBO HGTV MTV Nickelodeon Nick Jr. Paramount+ Pluto VH1 This collection is notable mostly for the range of library content it has on offer, making it a veritable “something for everyone” to complement the company’s high-brow (HBO) and middle-brow (Paramount+) strategy. Particularly important in the age of Feudal Media where audiences have self-sorted into hundreds of disconnected content bubbles and the more bubbles you can cater to, the more likely those bubble-dwellers are to subscribe to your service. Now will that be enough to knock Netflix off its perch as everyone’s default streaming service? No. Netflix is still far too entrenched and consumers far too lazy. But it is enough to do serious damage to Disney. Or at least knock the House of Mouse, with its much less extensive array of bubbles, down to number three on most people’s “must-have” lists. So there’s that and it’s no small thing. Only it does not then translate to “and then the combined giant gets up and crushes the digital interlopers.” Rather, it translates to “and that makes ParahBO a really attractive target for Google or Meta or Amazon, provided they feel they can get past the antitrust gargoyles.” So there’s that too. Then there is CNN, the alleged “crown jewel” of the deal, and the massive gnashing of teeth in certain circles about how it is about to be turned into another flavor of Fox by Bari Weiss and the Trump-loving Ellisons. Only here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter either. CNN doesn’t matter because cable news doesn’t matter. At least not now, in 2026. You know who still watches cable news? Old people. Like really old people. The average age of a CNN viewer is 67. Which is downright sprightly compared to FOX (69) and MSNOW (70). You know who almost NEVER watches CNN? Young people. And by “young” I mean anyone under 55. They get their news from the internet. Because that’s where people go to get the most up-to-the-minute news. Or the news that, in this age of Feudal Media, they want to hear. They’re not interested in hearing the British Foreign Minister do a 45 minute interview with Christiane Amanpour. BORING!!! They’re interested in whatever hot take their favorite podcaster or pundit has to offer. And they are not going to find that on any cable news network. To wit, the last time we bombed Iran, back in June, FOX, the top cable news network, saw its Saturday night ratings pop from around 3.4 million to 4.9 million. Which, if you were wondering, is not a very big number. The Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics, for example, drew 13.3 million viewers. Meaning there are just not enough elderly conservative cable news viewers at stake for the Ellisons to force CNN to shift gears, and even if they did, no one outside the Twitterverse would notice. Or care. Which then brings us to the greater point: While the legacy TV audience may not yet be as old as the cable news audience, it’s definitely not getting any younger. It’s fragmenting like crazy too, as various segments depart for social media or isolate themselves inside their various kingdoms, whether that is reality, true crime or high end dramas. Meaning ParahBO’s real value is in being able to appeal to more of those feudal media bubbles than anyone else. With the express caveat that those bubbles are the media equivalent of NORCs (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities). Which, while not a strategy for growth, means they will hang on for another decade or two. What You Need To Do About It On a macro level you need to accept that the monoculture is gone, that we are in the age of Feudal Media, and that nothing is ever going to be the way it was again. And that this is not prima facie a bad thing. But a world where everyone is inside their own disjointed content bubbles is not a world where mega-networks like ParahBO create the sorts of cultural touchpoints that define a generation. So if you are David Ellison, you must do your best to prop up the most passionate bubbles, work on improving your tech and wait for a big tech company to come in and buy you out. Which has likely been your plan all along. If you are Dave Zaslav and Warner Brothers management, well played. You got the maximum value out of the deal just by saying “no” to someone who had not heard the word all that often. Your shareholders will thank you even if Hollywood doesn’t. If you are one of the many minions working at a legacy media company, understand that the writing is on the wall. In Sharpie. And so you’ve got to figure out your next act, because no one is going to pay you to recreate the last one. If you are Josh D’Amaro and his team, realize that ParahBO’s big advantage over Disney is the breadth of its content—it’s got hella more bubbles. So focus on parks and cruises, keep the movies and the kids stuff coming and remember that those FX series do wonders for keeping Hulu top of mind. If you are worried about the implications of a president seeming to put his finger on the scale in favor of a friend, that is a valid concern. Just don’t delude yourself into thinking that another outcome would have made any difference to the industry, at least not in the long term. Because the river is only flowing in one direction. If you’re going to be in NYC next week, come check out TVREV’s CTV track at Marketecture Live III. We’ll be taking you on a journey through the world of feudal media from contextual targeting to measurement to the role of sports to why YouTube is now TV. Details below. |
