Sony Interested In Buying Warner Bros. Discovery After Split

Less than a week after Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was splitting into two separate companies, Sony is considering a purchase of WBD’s streaming and other assets.

Sources have told SEScoops that Sony is considering a purchase of the newly announced WBD Streaming and Studios company, which is expected to complete its separation from WBD Global Networks by mid-2026. Sony is interested in acquiring WBD’s HBO MAX streaming service, IPs and its gaming assets.

WBD announced on June 9 it was splitting the company, with most of the company’s $37 billion in debt attached to the WBD Global Networks, which include its vast number of cable channels, including CNN, TNT and TBS.

At the time the deal was announced, sources with knowledge of All-Elite Wrestling’s contract with WBD said no changes were expected with the company split.

Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery were working together to build a joint movie studio in Las Vegas this year. According to Variety, the proposal for the 31-acre facility ended on June 3 after the Nevada State Senate rejected a $95 million annual tax subsidy.

Sources said Sony was only interested acquiring WBD’s streaming, studio and gaming assets if they were separated from its cable networks, which have lost millions of homes as viewers abandon traditional cable packages.

David Zaslav, the current CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, is expected to take over WBD Streaming and Studios after the spin-off is complete in 2026. His status under a potential Sony purchase is unclear.

MultiChoice And SuperSport Aren't Threatened By Netflix And WWE Deal

Earlier in the year, WWE debuted on Netflix for consumers in US, UK and Canada as the streamer acquired exclusive rights to its flagship shows Raw, SmackDown and NXT alongside archived and premium live events. At the time, it was stated that Netflix would look to extend this to more markets.

In Africa, SuperSport held exclusive rights after its departure from e.tv in 2017 followed by another extension in 2022. At the time, SuperSport assured fans on DStv that it's rollout in some parts of the world wouldn't affect them.

During the week, MultiChoice unveiled their annual results for 31 March 2025 and within those documents MultiChoice addressed various topics one of which relate to WWE.

Since last year, various streaming platforms have started rivalling with SuperSport or as seen within this document YouTube + NFL and Amazon Prime Video + Prime Video Sport. MultiChoice in its defense highlights Premier League likely due to its tie-up to Showmax. 

To us this is sort of signal to SuperSport's impending disaster firstly with Ethiopian Premier League and in future (2027/8), WWE. This deal with Netflix is a global deal worth R94 billion and in some markets like Africa there is hurdles to getting this to the platform.

SuperSport in losing WWE would leave AEW on TNT as the only wrestling promotion on DStv unless that's removed as well with Amazon Prime Video and DAZN snatching rights to the promotion in some markets.

Even if SuperSport were to relinquish rights of AEW from TNT fact is WWE has a dedicated channel and AEW doesn't have enough content for such. To top it off, AEW lacks in scale and familiarity compared to WWE even with the presence of Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho.

That's what happened when e.tv attempted to use TNA to replace WWE the latter changed timeslots numerous times and moved exclusively to Openview before folding under StarTimes. It's likely that SuperSport will streamline its efforts and focus on its remaining lineup.

Even if Netflix has WWE with YouTube having NFL fact of the matter is they can't replicate SuperSport's diverse offering as it's expensive.

NBCUniversal's Spinoff Company Versant Unveils It's Content Slate For 2025/6 Season

NBCUniversal’s spin-off company Versant has revealed its first programming slate, with 16 new titles in the pipeline for 2025/26 including new scripted originals for cablenets Syfy and USA Network and unscripted titles for E! and Oxygen True Crime.

USA Network ordered The Rainmaker, a legal drama from Lionsgate Television and Blumhouse Television based on a John Grisham novel of the same name. The series follows a law school graduate who ends up uncovering two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of a client’s son.

Anna Pigeon, based on the bestselling novels by Nevada Barr, was also greenlit by USA Network. Produced by Cineflix Studios and December Films, the project follows a former city slicker who becomes a park ranger and turns her attentions to solving crimes that have taken place within national park grounds. Morwyn Brebner is showrunner.

USA Network also commissioned Everything On The Menu with Braun Strowman (WWE Studios and BrightNorth Studios), a culinary series following the WWE wrestler as he eats his way across America.

Syfy commissioned a zombie series based on comic series Revival, produced by Blue Ice Pictures and Hemmings Films. The project is set in a world where zombies are revived and appear and act just like they did before. The cast includes Melanie Scrofano, Romy Weltman, David James Elliott and Andy McQueen.

E! Commissioned unscripted titles Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane (Hartbeat), Plastic Surgery Rewind (Fulwell Entertainment), Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour (32 Flavors) and three instalments in a new franchise called Dirty Rotten Scandals focused on the dark side of America’s Next Top Model, the Dr Phil Show and The Price is Right.

Oxygen True Crime ordered The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher (Wolf Entertainment), murder mystery series The Killer Among Us hosted by Alan Cumming, The Death Row Informant (Wolf Entertainment, Fireside Pictures, Universal Television Alternative Studios, Vanity Fair Studios), The Silent Serial Killer: Gretzler (Glass Entertainment), Killer Grannies (Jarrett Creative) and The Boston Stranglers (This is Just a Test).

Versant, set to be spun off from Comcast by the end of the year, consists of USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen True Crime, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel, in addition to digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine. The programming team for the company was confirmed last week.

“Our audiences are among the most devoted in the industry, and their passion fuels everything we do,” said Versant’s president of entertainment Val Boreland. “By uniting the power of our iconic brands with a commitment to bold, original storytelling, we’re deepening our connection with viewers in meaningful ways. We’re proud to unveil this exciting new programming slate as we move forward under our new name.”

Cartoon Network Africa Acquires Broadcasting Rights To Pokémon: Indigo League, Rebroadcasts Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated And Batman: The Brave And The Bold

In a surprising move, Cartoon Network Africa will be allocating the first season of Pokémon: Indigo League from 30 June at 15:30 CAT. The problem part, neither Cartoon Network or Warner had marketed the show I mean they acquired Power Rangers Ninja Steel before Samurai and advertised both yet they're being hush about this.

The only other broadcaster to have aired this season at the time was the SABC so it's rather interesting that Cartoon Network Africa is getting more old content.

Another development that occured on Cartoon Network for some apparent reason is the sudden inclusion of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and Batman: The Brave And The Bold. From my understanding, Boing had been airing the latter for sometime and now it's on Cartoon Network.

Batman airs a double bill on weeknights at 19:20 CAT while Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated also a double bill airs at 10:10 and 13:45. It should be noted that Pokémon (Indigo League) is also premiering as a double bill presuming they'll be airing more previous iterations.

I'd like to think similar to the US, they're probably acknowledging more of their older shows but then Discovery had been promoting shows amongst their other brands so it could be that. Warner and Discovery are undergoing a split by mid 2026 but I don't think that's the reason.

Maybe my previous sentiments about the channel acknowledging their older properties and although Boing is a channel in Africa. It is not seen on DStv so maybe Warner caught a drift of that which is why TNT has got a lot of animated DC films from Toonami - anyways it's nice to these shows on the network.

Synopsis for Pokémon: Indigo League 

The series follows the adventures of Ash Ketchum, a 10-year-old aspiring Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town who is given a Pikachu by Pokémon researcher Professor Oak to begin his Pokémon journey. Ash is driven by his desire to win the Indigo Plateau's Pokémon League, a challenging tournament for outstanding Pokémon trainers who compete against each other in Pokémon battles. To qualify for the tournament, Ash must collect the required number of gym badges, which are tokens earned after defeating each of the Kanto region's elite Pokémon gym leaders. Early in the season, Ash befriends the water-type Pokémon trainer Misty, who initially travels with Ash in hopes of him replacing her destroyed bicycle, and Brock, a Pokémon breeder who is the leader of the Pewter City gym.

Is Toonami Africa Closing Soon???

Toonami is an action based animation channel home to content based from DC Comic characters such as Batman, Superman, Teen Titans and The Justice League. It had also distributed anime in one point with known figures such as Inazuma Eleven and Dragonball.

Since it's revival on StarTimes, Toonami had been repetitive state with very little new content outside of its DC films with its only notable show being Fire Force. Other than that, Toonami has been going the same route as other channels formerly in Africa such as EVA and Sony Channel.

In case anyone had been keeping tabs, Warner and Discovery are splitting up to some degree with this restructure set to be finalised by mid 2026. As we've seen with NBCUniversal's spinoff Versant, Warner Bros. Discovery is likely to close a few channels ahead of this transaction.

Cartoon Network and Cartoonito are set to fold under the Discovery umbrella and if I had to guess they'd likely want to streamline their efforts as they won't have much content from Warner Bros. to sustain them. This would put a brand like Toonami under scrutiny as a majority of its content comes from the mentioned brands.

The news of Toonami Africa demise wouldn't really come as a shocker as TNT had been distributing a batch of its films in recent years. Even Cartoon Network had begun to show interest in DC with Batman: The Brave And Bold and Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo.

Warner Bros. Discovery hasn't done much marketing for the network and as it stands Toonami has been mummified. At the moment, they only offer 5 shows 3 of which are centered on Batman with all the movies that were meant to build its primetime offering on TNT.

Africa is currently the last market to offer a dedicated channel for Toonami as France folded that under the Warner trademark. With its demise, this means that Toonami would be reduced to just a programming block in the US.