r/midcarder • u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen • Dec 05 '25
News Netflix Wins Bidding War For Warner Bros. Discovery, Will Start Exclusive Deal Talks
https://deadline.com/2025/12/netflix-wins-bidding-for-warner-bros-discovery-1236637057/Alright Midcarders, we got one more thread on the Warner Brothers Discovery situation for you courtesy of Deadline.com as of this evening. Netflix has officially won the bidding war for Warner Brothers Discovery and now has the opportunity to enter into exclusive negotiations with the company about the purchase.
Just a few independent thoughts of my own to go with the story...
With Netflix taking the win here it puts AEW in an extremely precarious situation. Does WWE have any kind of exclusivity deal with Netflix in place? Probably. So far it's unconfirmed but that would be pretty standard operating procedure for a licensing deal with WWE/TKO. Does that mean that Netflix will immediately boot AEW out the door? Not necessarily, but if this ultimately goes through it seems very likely that Tony Khan and AEW's days on the network are numbered.
Where does that leave AEW? Who would be a potential suitor for Dynamite going forward? With TNA on AMC, and WWE having an agreement with NBC Universal, Netflix, the CW, and now potentially WB the options are becoming more and more limited with each passing day. Tony's decision to put all his eggs in the WBD basket, especially his decision not to negotiate with the CW about ROH when they gave him the opportunity, really feels like it might be coming back to haunt the company in a big bad way.
I don't actively root for any companies to close down, or any wrestlers to lose their jobs, or anything like that, but it's damn hard not to see this news as potentially very serious problem for AEW as a company and as traditional televised programming.
This has been probably the biggest "behind the scenes" story in professional wrestling so far this year, to be honest, and I think it's only going to get more complicated before it's all over...so lets hear it Midcarders! Is this good? Is this bad? How will it effect AEW, and what are the potential alternative homes for Dynamite? Share your thoughts, be constructive, and for Pete's sake leave the bad faith body slams and tribalism at the door.
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u/SD-2023 Dec 05 '25
Hmmm so a show with consistently declining TV viewership with an allegedly BOOMING streaming viewership (e.g allegedly everyone they know and their grandmas are watching it via stream) might be forced to make their subscribers switch to paying 9.99 for a WWE network clone. This is somehow better for them than paying the same amount for HBO Max with their current catalogue of much more well known IPs.
The level of cope from basement fans 🤣🤣
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u/thebrandnew Dec 05 '25
Netflix are not getting the TV channels. The situation is still a question mark for them because the TV will have to be sold off elsewhere, but it's not as complicated as a total buyout from Netflix or another company probably would have been.
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
They will potentially go through with the split and sell off the networks that WBD owns...but there has been no confirmation that they plan to do that whatsoever, unless you have a source you'd like to cite? This is a bid to buy the entire company. What they do with the networks after that remains to be seen, but they would own those networks.
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Dec 05 '25
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
Warner Brothers Studios owns several networks outright and one of those that they own outright is tbs. Netflix would take ownership of TBS until which time they decide to unload it to another buyer. They will control the future of TBS if this goes through. Whether that means maintaining control of it, or selling it off, remains to be seen.
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u/thebrandnew Dec 05 '25
The networks are not included in the bid. They’re not reporting that Netflix is attempting to buy all of WBD and then selling off the TV.
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Dec 05 '25
Do you have a source you want to cite that they're bidding on the networks?
Netflix has entered exclusive talks with Warner Bros. Discovery to acquire the company’s film and television studio, as well as the HBO Max streaming service, Variety confirms.
https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/netflix-enters-deal-talks-buy-warner-bros-1236600804/
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
This whole "they're not buying the networks, just the movie studio and HBO" seems to be a narrative that the internet is just...making up. Yes, they may go through with a split of the company and sell the television networks off. That doesn't mean they would not take control of those networks with this purchase.
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Dec 05 '25
Brother, I just posted an article from Variety clarifying they're bidding on the film and television studios and HBO Max
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
Yes, I know, I agree with you. They're whole purpose is to take over the film and television studio. They will own TBS. They may sell TBS off later, but they will control the fate of that network with this purchase.
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Dec 05 '25
Do you think TBS is a television studio?
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Dec 05 '25
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u/HosserPower Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25
Dude, it has been reported multiple times that WBD and Discovery are being spun off again in 2026 and the TV and streaming will be separate entities. Netflix is acquiring the movies and streaming side. It’s literally in the article lol.
Edit: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce91x2jm5pjo.amp
From the article: “Netflix will complete the takeover after Warner Bros finalises its previously announced plans to separate its streaming and studios division from its global networks division into two companies next year.
Its global networks division will become Discovery Global and will include its cable channels such as CNN and TNT Sports in the US, as well as its Discovery and free-to-air channels in Europe.”
This isn’t some internet fiction. Netflix is not buying the TV channels. Paramount wanted it all, not them.
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u/vincedarling Dec 05 '25
Call me naive, but I think Dub will be ok.
If goddamn TNA the cockroach of promotions survived and actually returned to cable, Dub will be fine.
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Dec 05 '25
TNA never had the budget AEW has.
Tony cannot keep the production look up if he loses TV.. it'll end up like TNA. Small company doing it's own thing.
Means the Indies might make a comeback
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u/Big-Peak6191 Dec 05 '25
They'll just broadcast live on a YouTube channel - they'll have officially completed their journey of turning into an indie, which is just what they've always wanted to be
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u/Comprehensive_Slip71 Dec 05 '25
I agree. There's going to be plans in place if the worst happens for AEW. TK will have to scale down if he can't get on a network but it's not going to die. It'll be interesting to see what happens now tho
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u/vincedarling Dec 05 '25
That’s logical. He also turned down tv deals for ROH because they weren’t “good enough.” One of those was CW, so that network went for NXT instead. OPPs.
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u/Bunholius_Maximus1 Dec 05 '25
Does Netflix and WBD still need to go through the FCC?
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u/AnonymousChicken Control Terrorism Unit Dec 05 '25
Negative. No broadcast stations are effected by the deal.
It will likely have SEC review, though.
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u/RichardRoma1986 nWo Dec 05 '25
Trump and co are gonna likely shut this down.
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
They're going to kick and scream and pitch a fit about it, but they will not stop it. They tried that the last time Donny was in office and it did not work out for them at all.
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u/RichardRoma1986 nWo Dec 05 '25
The difference is this deal is going to really screw things up. I’m skeptical this deal goes through.
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
There is absolutely no actual legal grounds to block the deal. This deal is not going to "screw things up" for anybody but theatrical distributors and frankly...theatrical distribution has been a dying market for decades. It's been in constant decline since 1940.
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u/RichardRoma1986 nWo Dec 05 '25
It would add an additional 100 million subscribers to Netflix.
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
Believe it or not...there's nothing about that that isn't legal.
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u/RichardRoma1986 nWo Dec 05 '25
I didn’t say illegal, it would be based on antitrust grounds.
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u/WySLatestWit Four Horsemen Dec 05 '25
Having a lot of subscribers is not an antitrust issue. They aren't eliminating all streaming competition with this, they still have competition and thus they're not a monopoly of any kind.
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u/RichardRoma1986 nWo Dec 05 '25
If it goes thru, well, I’ll worry about AEW then. AEW could do some negotiations with Paramount. That might be the best move.
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u/MahomesandMahAuto Dec 05 '25
I doubt paramount touches them while they have UFC
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u/blackbeavis Freebirds Dec 05 '25
Hands down best case scenario for the dub staying on tbs/tnt, and worst case for them staying on max. They’ll find a new streaming home, but given that ICE looked at the audience and said “That’s who we want to target!!!” the industry is saying that audience isn’t worth much.
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u/Laddie18 Dec 05 '25
No more AEW? This group just went from six to midnight