Valuetainment - March 05, 2026


“This Could KILL CNN” - Paramount-Warner Merger Creates 200M Subscriber Streaming GIANT


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

215.55756

Word Count

3,426

Sentence Count

310

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary


Transcript

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00:00:06.220 Friday, March 6th to Wednesday, March 11th. Valid in-store and online.
00:00:12.640 So Paramount merger could create streaming behemoth with 200 million subscribers.
00:00:20.400 And if they combine HBO Max Paramount to challenge Netflix, which would be the plan.
00:00:25.900 Rob, is this the update of the news?
00:00:29.080 Yes, sir.
00:00:29.460 Go for it.
00:00:30.000 Paramount Skydance announcing plans to combine Paramount Plus and HBO Max.
00:00:35.080 Just three days ago, HBO's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery, agreed to be acquired by Paramount.
00:00:41.620 CEO David Ellison says the combination will boost their subscriber base to 200 million.
00:00:47.640 Federal regulators still need to approve that merger.
00:00:50.500 That's a real number right there while this is taking place.
00:00:53.340 And Paramount, debt to its $79 billion after Warner Brothers deal, no plan to sell cable assets.
00:00:59.840 And Warner Brothers Discovery CEO Zaslav calls Paramount pivot whiplashy as a $110 billion deal takes shape.
00:01:07.380 So which clip is this, Rob?
00:01:08.940 This is about the $79 billion debt.
00:01:11.340 That's okay.
00:01:12.200 So, Tom, as we're going through this next phase, do you think there's going to be anything that's going to prevent this from happening?
00:01:18.380 Or it's pretty much Paramount's property, that's it?
00:01:20.840 Well, if you listen to Netflix and Ted Sarandos, well, I didn't end up meeting at the White House, and I think the president had his thumb on the scale.
00:01:27.780 Come on, Ted.
00:01:28.820 You know, that's loser talk.
00:01:30.620 You didn't get the deal.
00:01:32.040 You didn't get it done.
00:01:32.840 Ted said that?
00:01:34.080 Yeah.
00:01:34.520 He didn't say thumb on the scale.
00:01:35.720 He said they had favor with the White House.
00:01:38.100 They're meeting with the White House.
00:01:39.340 I don't know what you want me to do.
00:01:40.860 We always had our number.
00:01:43.620 This is what we had to do.
00:01:44.640 But Ted is exactly, you look at his quotes and tell me, does that sound like a guy who is a little bitter and maybe lost the deal?
00:01:51.780 Yes, it does.
00:01:52.280 I haven't seen it to make a real judgment on it.
00:01:54.320 Can you see, is it a clip or is it an article?
00:01:57.220 It was articles.
00:01:57.800 You just look at Ted's quote.
00:01:59.380 Look at Ted Sarandos' quotes in the last 96 hours.
00:02:03.640 He didn't meet with the president.
00:02:04.900 He actually went to the president and was told, I'm sorry, sir, your meeting has been canceled.
00:02:09.300 Really?
00:02:10.340 That's correct.
00:02:10.680 So the president canceled the meeting last minute.
00:02:13.380 Interesting.
00:02:14.000 He's got a few other bigger things on it.
00:02:15.420 Shortly after arriving at the White House that his meeting was canceled, he's in the waiting room.
00:02:20.760 I'm sorry, sir.
00:02:21.380 Would you like a coffee?
00:02:22.140 Yeah, you can go.
00:02:23.440 Trump's in the war room.
00:02:24.420 Sorry.
00:02:24.620 And so things like this, he was saying, was I ever going to meet with Trump?
00:02:30.080 No.
00:02:30.360 He had a, you know who they had set him up with?
00:02:33.120 Susie Wiles and Pam Bondi.
00:02:34.880 Well, why don't you talk about your concerns in the Federal Trade Commission with the Attorney
00:02:38.280 General and Susie Wiles?
00:02:39.940 That's what they told him.
00:02:41.360 And he wasn't going to get the meeting with the president.
00:02:43.280 And all the media was saying, he's going to the White House.
00:02:45.600 What does this say, though?
00:02:46.520 What does this say to you, Tom?
00:02:47.860 It says that Trump had no desire to really listen, give ear to Netflix.
00:02:53.800 You can talk about desires and intentions later.
00:02:56.380 But there was, the president was busy with Iran and planning.
00:03:00.060 And no, I'm not giving you my ear.
00:03:04.120 Mark, where are you at with this?
00:03:05.860 Yeah, I mean, I would agree with that.
00:03:07.480 I mean, Trump made it pretty apparent that he didn't want to be involved in this deal.
00:03:11.860 You know, it's easy.
00:03:13.140 I love what you said.
00:03:14.100 That's loser talk.
00:03:14.900 You know, you want to make excuses for why you didn't get the deal, right?
00:03:18.000 You're always trying to find the blame.
00:03:19.800 And so I think that's really what it comes down to.
00:03:22.080 You know, from an interesting lens, Jeff Park put out this paper, and he called it the end
00:03:29.340 of the value, the death of the value investor and the rise of the ideological investor.
00:03:33.980 And he talked about how the Benjamin Graham world, the Warren Buffett world is gone.
00:03:37.400 Nobody invests on value anymore.
00:03:38.740 They invest on their ideology.
00:03:40.720 So Bud Light puts Dylan McGee, stock price goes down, and Cracker Barrel, right?
00:03:44.900 Yeah, pro crap.
00:03:46.640 Jeff Park's amazing.
00:03:48.440 And so he talked about, like, Sidney talks about great genes, and then American Eagle
00:03:53.220 goes up.
00:03:53.580 Well, he and stocks.
00:03:54.280 And so when I look at this, I like some of the shows on Paramount.
00:04:00.180 I don't like what Netflix has done.
00:04:02.100 So from an ideological side, to me, you know, it's like, wow, I'm kind of glad that deal
00:04:06.500 happened.
00:04:07.060 But I would just say, I would say it's loser talk.
00:04:09.140 The deal, they were outbid, and that's kind of all there was to it.
00:04:12.240 Well, I mean, if you look at the history of Netflix, Obama's, you know, politics, Suzanne
00:04:17.200 Rice, you know, you kind of know, no matter how much they try to play politics.
00:04:21.840 By the way, did Netflix give a million dollars for the inauguration?
00:04:26.620 I don't know if Netflix was part.
00:04:27.920 I know Amazon did.
00:04:28.780 I know Meta did.
00:04:30.100 I know quite a few people did.
00:04:31.180 But did Netflix participate in that or no?
00:04:33.500 Can you say, did Netflix inauguration?
00:04:37.420 I don't know if they were.
00:04:38.320 Remember the time of the inauguration?
00:04:40.620 It's like everybody went to a bar mitzvah where you didn't like the kid, but you gave
00:04:43.860 his dad an envelope anyway.
00:04:45.180 Sure, yeah.
00:04:45.740 So that was kind of like the inauguration.
00:04:48.480 So inauguration, there's no evidence that Netflix donated a million dollars.
00:04:51.600 Reports come from that.
00:04:52.380 Other major tech companies, exactly, including Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, all gave a million dollar
00:04:56.600 contribution.
00:04:57.520 They should have donated.
00:04:58.340 Well, I mean, you have to realize, as crazy as it sounds, these things matter.
00:05:03.600 They pay attention to it.
00:05:04.740 They're watching to see, hey, are you going to be a, because it was like, well, no, we
00:05:08.920 want to play neutral.
00:05:10.060 We don't want to say that we're on this side or this or that.
00:05:12.940 Amazon did, Meta did, Facebook did, Open did.
00:05:15.180 And I know it's like, well, Pat, that's exactly the problem.
00:05:17.800 Pay for play.
00:05:18.480 Then get rid of it.
00:05:20.020 Until you get rid of it, both sides are going to be doing it.
00:05:22.440 Then what do you do?
00:05:23.120 You sit on the sidelines and not say anything.
00:05:24.660 By the way, Jake Tapper came out and said the following about, you know, CNN will be affected
00:05:31.560 by Paramount's looming takeover of the network.
00:05:33.820 Rob, is this the clip?
00:05:34.680 Yes, sir.
00:05:35.080 Go for it.
00:05:35.840 Moments ago, Netflix said it is declining to raise its offer for the purchase of Warner
00:05:43.640 Brothers Studios and HBO following the Warner Brothers Discovery Board's determination that
00:05:49.540 Paramount, which is not just going for Warner Brothers Studios and HBO, but also the whole
00:05:54.300 angelata, including us here at CNN, Paramount has submitted a superior offer, according to
00:06:00.820 Warner Brothers Discovery's board.
00:06:03.560 As I've noted, Warner Brothers Discovery is the parent company of CNN.
00:06:07.140 So let's get right to CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter.
00:06:10.140 So let's start with the question.
00:06:11.920 He's fired up.
00:06:12.600 Why did Netflix walk away?
00:06:14.460 Ted Sarandos and others in Netflix made it very clear they really wanted Warner Brothers
00:06:17.700 Studios and they really wanted HBO.
00:06:20.860 They didn't want you.
00:06:21.760 In this corporate tug of war, it seems Netflix has suddenly let go of the rope.
00:06:25.900 There's a lot, of course, that could still happen here.
00:06:28.940 But the big news this afternoon is that Paramount suddenly is in a much stronger position to
00:06:34.660 take over CNN and the rest of the Warner Brothers Discovery company, which includes HBO and the
00:06:39.640 Warner Brothers movie studio.
00:06:40.440 Pause it right there, Rob.
00:06:41.340 So they asked insiders at CNN.
00:06:44.520 CNN Insider told Fox News Digital, which is kind of weird, but CNN Insider told Fox News
00:06:48.700 Digital, the mood is horrific.
00:06:51.400 People are very upset.
00:06:54.160 A second CNN Insider staffer said, a mix of despair, apprehension and curiosity.
00:06:59.580 Look, I think this is a place that has gone through a lot, a lot of mergers in the past
00:07:03.400 decade, a lot of fresh starts.
00:07:05.360 The Insider said, I think there's an underlying fear of mixing two news divisions.
00:07:09.800 Who is going to get camp?
00:07:11.380 Of course, they're going to be worried about it.
00:07:12.720 Tom, do you think there is going to be a massive restructure of getting rid of certain people
00:07:17.320 like Stelters?
00:07:18.680 Yes.
00:07:18.860 I thought Stelter got fired.
00:07:19.900 I don't know how he's back then.
00:07:20.880 I keep forgetting he's still employed.
00:07:22.900 So it's the, and then all of a sudden he pops up on the news.
00:07:26.160 Look, here's what you have.
00:07:27.900 You have to look at these as assets.
00:07:29.700 Look at those as divisions.
00:07:31.240 Look at it as product lines.
00:07:32.800 That is the way the Ellisons look at this.
00:07:34.680 They read all the things when they have talked deep.
00:07:38.340 Puck has covered it.
00:07:39.280 Information has covered it.
00:07:40.340 You can read some of the things that they've said, and they're looking at this.
00:07:44.320 They didn't buy this not to do anything with it.
00:07:46.500 Netflix didn't want the cable nets.
00:07:49.760 They were going to be left so that Zazz could put them together in a tracking stock, throw
00:07:55.120 it to the dogs on the market, and watch it like a cheap SPAC start at 10 and slowly drift
00:08:02.300 to 5 because there was nothing there.
00:08:04.460 And there was not a lot of, there's no cash being formed.
00:08:06.960 There's no valuing form.
00:08:08.400 Cable subs are going down.
00:08:09.460 The Ellisons look at it differently.
00:08:11.560 They're going to say, okay, CNN Plus didn't work because old school tried to build an OTT
00:08:16.540 channel, and they just mishandled it.
00:08:18.720 They went out and paid all this money to Chris Wallace.
00:08:20.880 I mean, you and I talked about this, Pat, remember?
00:08:22.940 And I'm like, Pat, if you were running this, this wouldn't be happening like this.
00:08:26.500 CNN Plus wouldn't have been doing it this way.
00:08:29.080 There would have been so many other ways to make money on this.
00:08:32.200 The Ellisons know that.
00:08:33.300 And guess what?
00:08:34.200 They have been cutting contracts at CNN for two years.
00:08:39.380 And Zazz has been going to the Allen Conference.
00:08:41.720 We've talked to people.
00:08:43.120 We've seen the quotes.
00:08:44.600 And at the Allen Conference, it's like Zazz walking up and opening his jacket.
00:08:48.260 Like you're walking out of the street in New York.
00:08:49.740 Want to buy a copy watch?
00:08:50.680 You know, it's like he's trying to sell CNN, and he hasn't been able to get any buyers.
00:08:55.100 They were trying to spin it off.
00:08:57.160 And strong reports indicated he was reminding people that, like, Caitlin Collins was on a
00:09:04.200 rookie deal.
00:09:05.160 She wasn't on one of these legacy 20-year super expensive deals trying to sell it.
00:09:10.680 And so what are the Ellisons going to do?
00:09:12.360 I think the old guys, like what we're hearing here, Brian and our friend Tepper, you know
00:09:18.180 what?
00:09:18.420 I think that they've had their time.
00:09:20.800 I think they're going to reconstitute it.
00:09:22.660 And they're like a product.
00:09:23.640 I think Tepper still has a place.
00:09:24.540 I don't think, I don't think, I think the people you have to get, if you're building a
00:09:28.160 news station, you don't get rid of center left, center right, middle.
00:09:33.280 You don't, you get rid of the, there was a girl on CNN the other day I was watching this.
00:09:37.980 And I think she works for CNN.
00:09:39.400 Rob, I don't know if you've seen this or not.
00:09:41.220 She said a convicted rapist.
00:09:44.200 Did you see this one?
00:09:45.240 They tried to correct her over and over and she eventually was like, she lost her shit.
00:09:50.460 And CNN's like, listen, you can't talk like that.
00:09:53.600 I'll find it to show you.
00:09:54.720 You have to get rid of the people that are saying stuff that makes absolute no sense.
00:10:00.820 But Jeff, what do you think is going to happen with this?
00:10:02.920 You think CNN's going to go through a massive, if the deal closes, how nasty do you think
00:10:06.800 it's going to be for CNN?
00:10:07.560 I think Paramount is going to shut CNN down.
00:10:10.300 Shut CNN down?
00:10:11.160 Yeah.
00:10:11.520 There's no value in it.
00:10:12.640 I mean, Tom, you just spent five minutes talking about how CNN is valueless.
00:10:16.440 It has no value.
00:10:18.400 And the value is not going to suddenly rise in the future.
00:10:21.540 Everybody's moving away from cable television and cable news.
00:10:24.260 So you milk what you can out of it.
00:10:26.520 You take whatever parts are good enough to move to other parts of the division.
00:10:29.700 And CNN as a brand, let's face it, completely tarnished.
00:10:33.200 That's never coming back.
00:10:34.560 Like, certainly the people on the right, somebody on the right is never going to watch CNN again.
00:10:38.480 Other than maybe, you know.
00:10:39.720 Scott Jennings is a stud.
00:10:41.520 Scott does a good job.
00:10:41.960 He's not going to stay there.
00:10:42.940 Let's be honest.
00:10:43.480 He's not going to stay there.
00:10:44.000 He just re-signed his contract.
00:10:45.580 I think six months ago he signed a new contract with them.
00:10:47.580 Perhaps.
00:10:48.480 No, he did.
00:10:49.200 He was here on the show and he told us this like three months ago.
00:10:50.900 I think eventually what happens is Paramount says we're done with CNN.
00:10:54.180 Okay, so let me push you back.
00:10:55.040 It's not really about CNN anymore.
00:10:56.400 Do you think a Paramount takes a guy like Scott and says, why don't you run it and do what they
00:11:02.100 did to CBS by bringing Barry Weissens and Barry from Free Press, you run it.
00:11:06.800 Do you think something like that is possible?
00:11:08.340 Except not in the old legacy media format.
00:11:11.320 You take somebody like Scott and make him do what you're doing.
00:11:15.080 You say, oh, we're going to build a social media new empire around it.
00:11:18.720 You take the talent and build up the infrastructure around it.
00:11:21.060 Got it.
00:11:21.320 You don't use the old legacy framework, which is no longer viable.
00:11:25.540 Let's be honest.
00:11:25.920 It's no longer viable.
00:11:27.140 No, I agree.
00:11:28.240 I agree.
00:11:28.600 You know, for me, I get invited to shows.
00:11:30.000 I'm having dinner with a couple of guys.
00:11:31.320 They're like, hey, how come you don't come back to our Fox anymore?
00:11:33.720 I said, dude, why would you?
00:11:36.140 Let me tell you what I said to them.
00:11:38.120 I don't mind going to these shows, but here was my problem.
00:11:41.340 I said, look, I don't live on TV.
00:11:43.140 I come to your show.
00:11:44.640 I know who the audience is, and you guys don't cut the clip on YouTube or X.
00:11:48.600 Why am I coming to your show?
00:11:50.000 It's a waste of my time to sit till 930 to do a four-minute clip, and then all of a sudden
00:11:54.400 you're not posting a clip for two or three days.
00:11:56.180 I have no interest.
00:11:57.040 I have better things to do.
00:11:58.040 I said, they have to also realize what they need to do to attract the younger people to
00:12:02.080 come on, that you need to get to their audience where their audience is at.
00:12:06.540 Some that do, great, let's roll.
00:12:08.120 Some that don't, why would it continue coming back on?
00:12:10.360 Well, I would say the point that Jeff made, I mean, that model is dead.
00:12:13.560 The rails are gone.
00:12:14.520 And what I think about specifically is the network model.
00:12:17.540 And so where it lives supreme is at the airport or, you know, where it is.
00:12:22.140 The doctor's office.
00:12:22.620 In the hotel lobby, I was, you know, I had to go get some passport stuff.
00:12:27.500 I'm sitting in the office, and it sits there all day, and it just runs.
00:12:29.640 But the network model is mostly dead.
00:12:31.040 Today, it's on demand.
00:12:32.320 I see a show I want.
00:12:33.500 I watch the show.
00:12:34.280 I turn it back off.
00:12:35.140 Or save it for later.
00:12:36.040 Just in time information, right?
00:12:37.580 And so I watch what I want to watch.
00:12:39.300 And then the day of having a network that just runs 24-7, and I sit there and watch the
00:12:43.960 program, and it's over.
00:12:45.460 Yeah, like I said, the old people, they have their TV on all day or at the airport.
00:12:48.600 That's coming to an end.
00:12:49.580 The model's dead.
00:12:50.720 That's the only value that's left is pharmaceutical ads to boomers.
00:12:53.840 Yeah.
00:12:54.020 As soon as the, you know, demographic shift, boomers start to die off.
00:12:58.020 Who need the pharmaceuticals.
00:12:59.420 Exactly.
00:12:59.940 So then the whole model is just dead.
00:13:01.860 So you milk what you count as CNN.
00:13:03.000 Not to mention the cost.
00:13:04.200 I mean, look at this production here.
00:13:05.540 It's probably a fraction of what CNN would cost to run.
00:13:07.700 Absolutely.
00:13:09.040 No, business-wise, it doesn't make sense on what they're doing.
00:13:13.040 But it is what it is.
00:13:14.740 I'm curious if they're actually going to do what you're talking about, which is shutting
00:13:18.060 the whole thing down.
00:13:19.680 And if they do, obviously, you know, it'll be a statement to the entire marketplace.
00:13:24.620 What the hell do they do next?
00:13:26.460 Where do I go next?
00:13:27.840 What happens to the business model?
00:13:29.900 You know, do I have to go be independent?
00:13:31.640 Do you know how hard it is to be independent?
00:13:34.420 Do you know how many people like these guys?
00:13:36.580 So today at 6 o'clock news, we found out that I'm being a teleprompter host.
00:13:43.020 Yeah.
00:13:43.940 And then go do it like this.
00:13:45.360 You're live.
00:13:45.860 Oh, my God.
00:13:46.360 Comment section.
00:13:46.920 Did you hear what they said about me?
00:13:48.080 They said this.
00:13:48.840 Fix your tie.
00:13:49.500 Oh, my God.
00:13:49.880 I don't want to read the comments.
00:13:50.920 And then you go to all these tough guys, Ilhan Omar and Deer and Mehdi Hassan, and they
00:13:54.540 go on Twitter.
00:13:55.120 They post a bunch of stuff.
00:13:56.360 What do they do?
00:13:57.200 Cut the comments.
00:13:57.780 Comment section.
00:13:58.500 Yeah.
00:13:58.700 Turn the comment section on.
00:13:59.740 What are you afraid of?
00:14:00.960 People get called out all the time.
00:14:02.500 But they hide the comment section.
00:14:03.720 I don't want people to say anything.
00:14:04.680 Just my friends say nice things about me.
00:14:06.900 This business is nasty.
00:14:09.300 Yeah.
00:14:09.700 It is so nasty.
00:14:10.860 And the part I'm excited about is how that transition is going to take place and how many
00:14:16.940 of them are going to make it.
00:14:19.200 Like you guys, independently, you run your own shows.
00:14:21.420 You have a few hundred thousand listeners that follow you.
00:14:23.460 Both of you got almost a million people that follow you.
00:14:25.800 Your channel, Wealth is Engineered, Mark Moss, Reasonable.
00:14:28.760 We had you on before.
00:14:29.760 Yeah.
00:14:30.060 And I like his taste.
00:14:31.080 This morning, we texted each other.
00:14:32.620 I said, you better wear a gray suit today.
00:14:34.560 And he followed.
00:14:35.140 He followed suit.
00:14:36.120 But I wanted a dark shirt.
00:14:38.820 We had a differentiator.
00:14:40.460 And then Jeff Snyder's channel, Eurodollar University.
00:14:43.180 Can you imagine?
00:14:44.060 Independently.
00:14:44.940 We're just doing our own thing.
00:14:46.420 And people are showing up from around the world saying, hey, what does he have to say?
00:14:50.600 What does she have to say?
00:14:51.760 What are they talking about?
00:14:52.780 So if you enjoy what Mark and Jeff had to say, we're going to put the link below.
00:14:58.060 Go support them.
00:14:59.320 Subscribe to their channels.
00:15:00.700 And Tom's got a burger episode that's coming up that I keep being taught.
00:15:04.360 It's being posted everywhere at the office.
00:15:06.180 So when it does come out, folks, we're going to share with you as well.
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