The Fog Of Courage | Courage The Cowardly Dog | Cartoon Network
When Courage finds a mysterious amulet while digging through the yard, a Ghostly Fog covers the farm. Eustace, however, refuses to return the amulet that apparently belongs to the Fog Ghost's long lost love, Cariana. Now Courage must protect his family from the vengeful fog spirit.
Rude Removal | Dexter's Laboratory | Cartoon Network
"Rude Removal" is a cartoon episode originally produced in 1997 for the animated television series Dexter's Laboratory for Cartoon Network. It was intended to air as part of the second season, but was left unaired due to the characters swearing even though the swear words were censored.
Warner Bros. Discovery Looking To Acquire Assets Of Companies Flirting With Or For Filing For Bankruptcy, Hints At The Demise Of Paramount Global And NBCUniversal
The targets could be companies flirting with or filing for bankruptcy, Malone said in an exclusive interview with CNBC on Thursday. While U.S. regulators may frown at large media companies coming together because of overlaps with studio, cable or broadcasting assets, they'll be much more forgiving if the companies are struggling to survive, Malone told David Faber.
"I think we're going to see very serious distress in our industry," Malone said. "There is an exemption to the antitrust laws on a failing business. At some point of distress, right, then some of the restrictions, they look the other way."
Media company valuations have been plummeting amid streaming video losses, traditional TV subscriber defections, and a down advertising market. This has affected Warner Bros. Discovery as much as its peers. The company's market valuation recently fell below $23 billion, its lowest point since WarnerMedia and Discovery merged last year. The company ended the third quarter with about $43 billion in net debt.
Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to position itself to be an acquirer, rather than a distressed asset, itself, by paying down debt and increasing cash flow, Zaslav said during his company's earnings conference call this week. Warner Bros. Discovery has paid down $12 billion and expects to generate at least $5 billion in free cash flow this year, the company said.
"We're surrounded by a lot of companies that are – don't have the geographic diversity that we have, aren't generating real free cash flow, have debt that are presenting issues," Zaslav said Thursday. "We're de-levering at a time when our peers are levering up, at a time when our peers are unstable, and there is a lot of excess competitive – excess players in the market. So, this will give us a chance not only to fight to grow in the next year, but to have the kind of balance sheet and the kind of stability ... that we could be really opportunistic over the next 12 to 24 months."
Still, Warner Bros. Discovery also acknowledged it will miss its own year-end leverage target of 2.5 to 3 times adjusted earnings as the TV ad market struggles and linear TV subscription revenue declines.
Buying from distress
Malone has some experience with profiting from times of distress.
His Liberty Media acquired a 40% stake in Sirius XM over several years more than a decade ago, saving it from bankruptcy. Since then, the equity value of the satellite radio company has bounced back from nearly zero to about $5 per share. Sirius XM currently has a market capitalization of about $18 billion.
"It made us a lot of money with Sirius," Malone told Faber.
While Malone didn't name a specific company as a target for Warner Bros. Discovery, he discussed Paramount Global as an example of a company whose prospects seem shaky. Paramount Global's market valuation has slumped below $8 billion while carrying about $16 billion in debt.
Malone noted that Paramount's debt was recently downgraded. "I think that they're running probably negative free cash flow," he said.
Paramount Global's third-quarter cash flow was $377 million, and the company has forecast a return to positive free cash flow in 2024.
While Paramount Global shares have fallen precipitously since Viacom and CBS merged in 2019, there are signs the company is shoring up its balance sheet. CEO Bob Bakish said earlier this month Paramount Global's streaming losses will be lower in 2023 than 2022, and the company expects further improvement to losses in 2024. The company closed a sale for book publisher Simon & Schuster for $1.6 billion and will use the proceeds to pay down debt.
Paramount Global is one of the few assets that logically fits Malone's vision of a media asset that would have regulatory issues as an acquisition with potential distress concerns. Comcast's NBCUniversal, another potential merger partner, will lose more than $2 billion this year on its streaming service, Peacock, but the media giant is shielded by its parent company, the largest U.S. broadband provider.
"Warner Bros. [Discovery] now is making money. Not a lot, but they're making money," Malone said. "Peacock is losing a lot of money. Paramount is losing a ton of money that they can't afford. At least [Comcast CEO] Brian [Roberts] can afford to lose the money."
Paramount Global's controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is open to a transformative transaction, CNBC reported last month. Puck's Dylan Byers recently reported that industry insiders have speculated Warner Bros. Discovery might pursue an acquisition of Paramount Global after the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
A combination of NBCUniversal and Paramount Global also has strategic logic, but the combination of two national broadcast networks — Comcast's NBC and Paramount Global's CBS — would present a significant regulatory hurdle. Warner Bros. Discovery doesn't own a broadcast network, making an acquisition of CBS easier.
Spokespeople for Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
While Malone said all legacy media companies should be talking to each other about merger synergies, he acknowledged valuations may have to fall farther to get regulators on board with further consolidation. Malone predicted that could happen in the same timeline Zaslav gave — within the next two years.
"Eventually maybe there'll be regulatory relief," Malone said. "Out of distress usually comes the reduction in competition, increased pricing power, and the opportunity to buy assets at a deep discount."
Possible Channel Termination: Could National Geographic Wild's Content Get Migrated Onto National Geographic And Disney+?
A few months ago, Disney and Spectrum renewed their agreement which saw brands like ABC, Disney Channel and National Geographic remain onboard their platforms while secondary channels like FXX, Disney Junior and National Geographic Wild went dark on their platforms.
Since then it has brought a lot of questions regarding the future of these brands as well as others distributed by NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. Disney on the other hand had explored the possibility of selling some of their linear channels.
Current properties like Disney Star is said to be acquired by Reliance with Disney said to be holding minority stake in the company and a similar fate is said be awaiting both ESPN and National Geographic of course we've received an update on one of the latter channels.
According to sources, Disney is looking to sell or better yet fold National Geographic under A+E Networks. Home to factual brands like HISTORY, Lifetime and Crime + Investigation, it serves as a joint venture between Disney, Sky (Europe) and Hearst Corporation.
The idea of possible sale of National Geographic came through a recent survey into the market which revealed that ABC, FX and Disney Channel were priority brands for audiences especially Disney when it pertains to profit making National Geographic and Disney Junior obsolete.
A+E Networks operates a number of singular brands as mentioned above so wouldn't seem far fetched if National Geographic Wild were to merge onto National Geographic and Disney+ seeing now that the main channel is not viewed as a priority brand on both cable and streamer.
National Geographic would remain intact for the time being but overtime they'd be shortage in programming which could lead to more cord cutting or in this case National Geographic Wild. As the content from Wild would help build the lineup of the main channel.
HISTORY vs. National Geographic
As mentioned, HISTORY which operates under A+E Networks is a factual entertainment channel which offers programming based on mechanical and civil engineering, science, mystical creatures and organised crimes part of which resides within National Geographic.
With National Geographic Wild possibly on the chopping block perhaps the main National Geographic channel will take up the identity of Wild and focus solely on wildlife and natural history programming as seen with rival brands like BBC Earth.
Another would be the company's property being distributed on National Geographic as a means to get more recognition for their portfolio.
In other developments, Disney is set to close their remaining linear offering in parts of Asia by the end of December and this includes National Geographic and National Geographic Wild as the company is putting more emphasis toward the direct to consumer business.
Disney Is Reportedly Looking To Sell National Geographic And Freeform To A+E Networks
Ever since back in July 2023, in an interview with CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger left an option open to sell some of its TV assets, including ESPN, ABC, and more. Now we have a new report that Disney may have a buyer in mind for some of its networks, including Freeform and National Geographic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Disney has completed its review of its cable networks and has decided which ones it wants to sell. According to this report, three networks are seen as the most profitable to Disney, including ABC, FX, and the Disney Channel. These channels produce a lot of content not just for cable TV but also for its streaming service, Disney+.
According to this report, Disney is considering selling some of its smaller networks, including Freeform and National Geographic to A+E Network. This deal will let Disney keep partial ownership of these networks as A+E Networks is already a joint effort between Disney and Hearst.
This sale would let Disney break free of the high costs of these networks and remove them from their books. At the same time, keeping the door open for any potential profits from these networks. This is very similar to what AT&T did by spinning off DIRECTV but still keeping a majority ownership.
A+E Networks is a 50/50 split between Disney and Hearst Communications. In the past A+E Networks was also owned by NBCUniversal, but they sold their share to Dinsey and Hearst in July of 2012. Hearst and Disney also share ownership of ESPN, with Hearst being a minority owner.
Excluding ESPN, Disney saw TV network revenue drop 9.1% in the 4th quarter of 2023. Cutting some unprofitable networks like Freeform could help Disney reduce these losses on its books.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)