Back in October, sources close to David Zaslav told me that Warner Bros. Discovery might make a move on Shari Redstone’s Paramount Global, an acquisition that would give Zaz’s mediaco new synergy opportunities, greater reach in streaming, additional franchise I.P., highly coveted NFL rights, and a chance to unite a number of assets, like CNN with CBS News—all at a pivotal moment when debt-saddled legacy media giants are fighting a sink-or-swim battle for scale. But any deal would happen a ways down the line, these sources cautioned: certainly after April 2024, the trigger date for WBD to pursue further deals according to the rules of the Reverse Morris Trust framework wherein WBD was conceived—and possibly not until 2025, once the company gleaned a better read on the regulatory environment. In the weeks that followed, both Zaz and John Malone seemed to acknowledge their interest.