Skydance Paramount Reportedly Planning Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

Paramount Skydance will reportedly make a bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a Wall Street Journal article Thursday. The deal would include all the company’s cable networks, including CNN and HBO, the article said. Because Warner Bros. doesn’t own broadcast stations, the deal likely wouldn’t require FCC approval, communications attorneys told us. However, if it's consummated, it could make it easier for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to apply pressure to a wider swath of media through the agency's open news distortion proceeding. Paramount recently hired a news ombudsman to appease the FCC (see 2509090065). Carr has said the agency will be monitoring Skydance Paramount’s commitments against diversity initiatives and its news policies, and he has targeted large media companies over their smaller broadcast divisions in the past (see 2412270039). It’s not yet clear how such a combination would fare at the DOJ, attorneys told us.