Bob Iger, CEO of Disney (L), and Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast (R).
Getty images
Ho, ho, ho! It is a tradition of celebrations: the leaders of anonymous media are predicting the 2025 industry.
In honor of the 12 days of Christmas, we give you 12 predictions of some of the most powerful media and entertainment leaders in the world, weighing on the state of anonymity so that they can speak frankly about their visions of the coming year. And then, because we have the joy of the holidays, we give you a bonus. A dozen bakers!
Looking back The predictions of 2024They were not as good as in previous years. But there were sure or strokes.
While Warner Bros. Discovery's Max, Netflix And Disney Not all have teamed up for the first important streaming package, as a participant predicted it last year, Max and Disney have joined forces. TV broadcasting station groups continued to shake Regional sports rights, like another executive, had provided for it. Redbird Capital has not completely acquired OverallBut the investment capital company was part of the consortium with Skydance which Announced a merger with the company in July.
As for the other predictions of 2024, Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo did not win their campaign of activists to join the Disney Board of Directors; The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, has not renewed its contract beyond 2026, buy candle media or name Dana Walden its successor; And NBA media rights did not go to Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Apple – They went to Disney, Nbcuniversal and Amazon.
Oh, and another miss: while Comcast announced a spin-off of most of his wired networks, he did not turn Nbcuniversal and merged it with Warner Bros. Discovery.
It is a great transmission of this year's predictions:
Executive 1: Comcast will acquire studio and streaming assets from Warner Bros. Discovery and will merge them with Nbcuniversal
The second time is charm! Discovery Warner Bros. separate its linear assets of the rest of the company. Comcast is turning Most of its wired networks. It must mean something, right?
Executive 2: Comcast will acquire the rest of Nbcuniversal from the Charter
It's true, Comcast can have Spinco 1 and Spinco 2! This framework predicts that Comcast will test the Donald Trump Regulatory Administration and will try to combine the two largest companies in American cable fall off To buy Time Warner Cable – which was the second largest cable of cable cable before its acquisition by Charter – after concluding that the government would block the agreement.
Executive 3: Fox acquires most of Warner Bros. Discovery
After having sold the majority of its entertainment assets in Disney in 2019,, Fox Chochera the media world by again winning a scale, acquiring HBO, the film studio, the Turner Networks and the Warner Bros. streaming active ingredients. Discovery, according to this framework.
For what it is worth, another executive has predicted that Fox would sell, given the unknown future From Murdoch Family Trust.
Executive 4: Dana Walden will leave Disney at the end of the year she does not get the CEO position
Disney has already declared that she planned to delay the nomance of a new CEO until the beginning of 2026, so this prediction assumes that the company will slightly increase the announcement. Walden, Disney Disney Entertainment co -presidentis the ultimate Hollywood initiate who Display for work. The board of directors takes its time to check the candidates after the transfer of Iger to Bob Chapek in 2020 Isn't that very good.
A second executive applied that the president of Nbcuniversal Entertainment and Studios, Donna Langley, will be considered a challenge for Walden and other internal candidates.
Dana Walden, Ryan Murphy, Bob Iger and the president of FX Networks, John Landgraf, from left to left, attend the first in the limited series of Murphy “Feud: Capot against the Swans”, on January 23, 2024.
Credit: Disney
Executive 5: Jeff Bezos will be intimidated for the sale of the Washington Post after President Trump clearly indicates that his space company, Blue Origin, will suffer from the cover of his newspaper
Bezos said he was dedicated to the future of the post, but the newspaper was engulfed in drama This year. Perhaps 2025 is the year when Bezos decides that he had enough additional headache.
Executive 6: Several groups of television posts will sell from financial difficulties
Companies such as EW Scripps,, Tegna And Sinclair Broadcast have seen their actions collapse in recent years while traditional paid television assessments have decreased with the cord cut. The leaders of these companies hope that a new Trump administration will open the way to more consolidation. Several will sell out of despair, either to avoid bankruptcy, or to win the necessary scale, guesses this executive.
Executive 7: The Trump administration is relaxing the television station's property rules, leading to CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox to buy their own affiliation stations
A thought similar to the last, but this framework has made the most daring to say that the buyers of the stations will themselves be the diffusion networks.
Paramount's headquarters in New York on August 27, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty images
Executive 8: Paramount Global will acquire lionsgate after turning from Starz
If Paramount Global obtains government approval merge with Skydance Media next year, his new leadership will likely seek to transform the company. A large movement that the company will make is to acquire Lionsgate Studio after Starz spins At the beginning of next year, said this framework.
Executive 9: a large technological company will acquire the manufacturer of video games Electronic Arts
After flirting with Comcast and Disney in recent years, Electronic arts in 2025 will sell a large technological company as Netflix,, AlphabetApple or Amazon, said this framework. Which would follow the traces of Microsoft Acquire Activision in 2023.
Executive 10: the media threshing of the industry will be exaggerated, and there will be much less offers than anyone who does not think it
You are wrong! This leader said that the predictions of mergers and acquisitions will not generally be real, because consolidation will not provide real fixes to an industry in transition.
Executive 11: Paramount +, Peacock and Max come together together
The leaders of Paramount Global, Nbcuniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery are all behind the need to consider the streaming consolidation options. What if there was a package that presented the three services? This executive assumes that the three services will be sold together, either via a hard pack on a platform, or sold together at a reduced price.
Executive 12: the sports streaming service will never be launched, and Fox will authorize its sporting content at the ESPN streaming service
Coming, a joint venture belonging to Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, was announced to a big fanfare Earlier this year. But an antitrust trial Classified by FUBO has blocked the launch of the service. Meanwhile, ESPN will make its debut on its “flagship” streaming service by fall 2025. This will lead companies to abandon, predicts this framework.
Executive 13: Kathy Kennedy will leave Lucasfilm
Kennedy was the president of Disney Lucasfilm Since 2012 and has now been in the 1970s. It may be time for a new leader in the Star Wars franchise.
May the force be with you. Let's see what 2025 brings. Happy holidays!
Disclosure: Comcast has nbcuniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
