WBD vs. Comcast, Shari’s Poison Pill, Thompson’s Honeymoon

Welcome to a special Media Monday edition of The Daily Courant, and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate.

Today, we lead with Dylan Byers’ potpourri of media intel and analysis: Bob Bakish’s Paramount smoke signals, the end of Mark Thompson’s CNN honeymoon, and Will Lewis’s resuscitation job at The Washington Post.

Plus, below the fold: Matt Belloni reads between the lines of the Bakish-Zaslav summit. Bill Cohan identifies 11.3 billion reasons why David Ellison and Gerry Cardinale might reconsider their bid for the Redstone family holding company. Julia Alexander disentangles the Paramount assets and determines their market value. On The Town, Matt and LightShed Partners media analyst Rich Greenfield beef over the wisdom of a Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. And on a special Media Monday episode of The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly and Dylan kibitz about who will buy Paramount, WBD vs. Comcast, and whether streaming as we know it is doomed.

DYLAN BYERS

News and notes on the topics everyone is fulminating over as the holidays set in: Zazmount possibilities, Will Lewis’s forthcoming tenure at The Washington Post, and early grumblings from CNN on the Thompson era.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Notes on Zaslav’s leaked meeting with Bakish, the deal chatter choreography, and the Comcast of it all.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

David Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s oh-so-clever plan to seize Paramount Global through NAI would also have to contend with a potential $11.2 billion landmine: the crushing debt that would immediately come due if Wall Street downgrades Paramount’s credit rating.

JULIA ALEXANDER

Exploring the value, and content synergies, among CBS, Nickelodeon, and the Taylor Sheridan Cinematic Universe, among other assets within Paramount Global.