Good evening, I'm Dylan Byers.

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Dylan

Zaz Moves, a Kotick Question, and BriWi Speculation

Three questions, predictions, and some insider gossip about potential media moves and acquisitions in the new year.

Christmastime is here, happiness and cheer. The lights, the music, the cold weather—even Hollywood will dip into the high 30s next week—and, of course, the wish lists. Recently, someone asked me if there was any big-ticket item I wanted from Santa. As I was mulling it over, considering maybe a top-shelf Scotch or a ski vacation in the Wasatch, news came across the wire that Rupert and Jerry Murdoch had purchased Charles Koch‘s 340,000-acre cattle ranch in Montana, just outside of Yellowstone National Park, to the tune of $200 million. That, I thought to myself. I’ll take that.

And that got me thinking: what might the other titans of the media industry want for themselves? Herewith, three questions (and predictions) for media moves and acquisitions in the new year.

Does Brian Roberts Want Activision?

Brian Roberts likes to say that Comcast doesn’t need mergers and acquisitions to achieve scale. I’ve always found that hard to believe, at least when it comes to the future of NBCUniversal. Comcast, after all, has a legacy of acquisitiveness, from its failed plays for Disney and Fox to its successful roll-ups of NBCUniversal, Sky, and DreamWorks. For a time, conventional wisdom held that Roberts would move next on AT&T’s WarnerMedia, creating an NBCU-Warner tie-up to compete with the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Disney. That option disappeared, of course, when David Zaslav slid into John Stankey‘s DMs and ran off with the company via Reverse Morris Trust. The very day that deal was announced, all eyes turned to Roberts: What would the inveterate dealmaker do now that WarnerMedia was off the table?

Initially, the most obvious target seemed to be ViacomCBS, simply because it seemed like the last thing on the shelf. A more thorough examination of the two companies reveals all sorts of structural issues that may preclude such a deal from happening. Perhaps most importantly, ViacomCBS (market cap: $20 billion) doesn’t really give Comcast (market cap: $221 billion) that much more scale, particularly once you take into account the assets that Comcast would have to divest in order to pass the regulatory hurdles. At a recent investor conference, Comcast C.F.O. Mike Cavanagh said “the bar is really high for us to pursue outright acquisitions of any material size.” The next best option? Perhaps stick it out for a few years until they can merge NBCUniversal with the combined WarnerMedia-Discovery, soon to be known as Warner Bros. Discovery. Such a deal remains very plausible, albeit several years down the line. (Remember when I said that MSNBC and CNN were obvious bedfellows?)

But what if Roberts doesn’t want to wait? In recent weeks, a few media executives have put a bug in my ear: Would Roberts feel out a move on Activision Blizzard? Bobby Kotick‘s video game empire (market cap: $45 billion) is trading at a massive discount and would give Comcast and NBCUniversal immediate entry into gaming, which is the fastest-growing content category in media, and give NBCUniversal a vast new trove of intellectual property, including the Call of Duty and Overwatch franchises. Activision would also give Comcast a small but significant stake in the metaverse, the next iteration of the internet. Meanwhile, thanks to Activision’s various game delays and sexual harassment scandals, the price tag has never been more appealing. After hitting a high of $104 in February, $ATVI stock has plummeted to $58, its lowest point since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Would Kotick sell? I don’t know. He’s facing an S.E.C. investigation into the company’s handling of sexual misconduct, a lawsuit from the state of California concerning Activision’s “frat boy” culture, and an intensifying unionization effort. And though I reported last month that Kotick has the full support of his board, and has no intention of stepping down, it’s also not clear how much longer he wants to deal with being under investigation and overseeing a sinking stock. If the share price gets too low, board support may dwindle, and the fate of Activision’s future may no longer be his to decide. In that climate, getting out on your own terms, via a sale, may be the most appealing option.

Who Does David Zaslav Want at WBD?

“Have you heard anything about Peter Rice going to Warner?” a Disney insider texted me this week. The buzz that Disney’s entertainment chief may decamp for Zaslav’s new shop is certainly making the rounds. (It came up at a CAA staff meeting last week, for instance.) And it’s not altogether surprising, given that Zaslav has been making regular trips to Los Angeles since the Warner-Discovery tie up was announced and meeting with… absolutely everyone. Meanwhile, WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar is almost certainly out of Warner Bros. Discovery the day the deal closes, so it stands to reason that Zaslav is shopping for a new senior executive with film and television experience to fill his shoes. And Rice, a highly respected executive, could be loose in the saddle as Bob Iger exits.

Would Rice want the job? The increasingly pervasive chatter among Hollywood insiders is that he might be restless at Disney, particularly since a corporate restructure stripped away his P&L—the real power in that role—and limited him to overseeing content creation across Disney’s various TV networks and studios. Of course, only Peter Rice knows if Peter Rice is restless—and, by the way, having $10 billion or so dollars a year to spend on making Disney shows isn’t a bad thing!—but there’s every reason to believe that he’d be amenable to a more powerful position elsewhere, Warner or otherwise, if the price were right. (Rice and Disney declined comment).

And of course, it’s not clear that Zaslav wants Rice. Like I said, he’s meeting with everyone. He’s also brought in Kevin Mayer, who was passed over for Disney’s top job, as a consultant on the Warner-Discovery merger. Now, Mayer has all sorts of commitments elsewhere that may preclude him from finding a permanent home at WBD—he’s chairman of DAZN, the sports streaming platform and, along with fellow Disney alum Tom Staggs, serves as co-C.E.O. and co-chairman of two blank-check companies that fly under the banner of Forest Road Acquisition Corp. And yet, I can’t help but look at his advisory role with Zaslav and wonder if there’s more of a future there.

Where Does Brian Williams Go Next?

Brian Williams signed off at MSNBC last night, and for the first time in a long time I found myself actually caring about something that someone said on cable news. Rather than merely reminiscing about his storied, 28-year history with NBCUniversal, Williams issued a warning about the future of America at a time when, thanks to destructive lawmakers, the “darkness on the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods,” and the nation has become “unrecognizable to those who came before us and fought to protect it.” (You’ll have to forgive the Springsteen reference; Williams is a Jersey boy at heart, and still has a place in Bay Head.) He began his monologue by claiming that he was neither a liberal nor a conservative but an institutionalist, and he ended it by affirming that his career is by no means over: “I will probably find it impossible to be silent and stay away from you and lights and cameras after I experiment with relaxation and find out what I’ve missed and what’s out there.” 

The second (and third) acts of American media personalities tend to be less notable than the roles that made them famous. History will almost certainly remember David Letterman as a late night host, rather than a long-form celebrity interviewer. The Daily Show remains Jon Stewart’s claim to fame, despite subsequent directorial efforts and a new Apple TV+ show. In the eyes of future generations, Megyn Kelly will be the Fox News host, Katie Couric the Today show anchor.

And yet, as I watched Williams’ sign off, I couldn’t help but feel that his most significant contribution to American media and culture may still lie ahead. His appeal to institutionalism and integrity were a welcome antidote to the shrill partisanship of cable news, as well as that of social media. Some media executives I talk to have posited that Williams might find a home in a more jovial late-night format, but as I watched the clip I felt like his true value lay in his calm and measured authority, his trustworthiness—and yes, I realize that this was the man who once fabricated a war reporting experience. Could Williams find a new role as America’s most trusted newsman in the streaming era? I’m almost certainly being overly nostalgic, idealistic and optimistic about the current appetites of my fellow viewers. But, hell, if I didn’t just lose my last reason to watch cable news at night.

FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT