Warner-Paramount Combo Creates Sports Giant Rivaling Disney's ESPN: Here's The Rights Rundown

With Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) moving to the sidelines, a merger between Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) and Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) is one step closer to being completed. The combined company will be a giant in the media space, including an impressive portfolio of sports rights that could help with merger synergies and to justify high streaming subscription prices.

Warner Bros. & Paramount Skydance Sports Library

The combination of Warner Bros. and Paramount Skydance brings together two companies that have streaming platforms, cable TV channels and sports rights. Together, the companies will share those items and look to get the best bang for their buck from subscribers and advertisers.

While The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) unit ESPN has the largest portfolio of sports content and sports rights in the United States, the combination of Warner Bros. and Paramount Skydance could give the sports juggernaut a run for its money.

Together, the two companies will have many sports rights, including the following:

• Major League Baseball: holds exclusive rights through 2028 season, will still have some playoffs and Tuesday Night Baseball coverage after 2028
• National Football League: Paramount holds rights to NFL games on Sundays on the CBS network through 2033, but NFL could terminate early after 2029
• National Hockey League: Warner Bros. has rights via Turner Sports segment for U.S. through the 2027-2028 season, which includes 72 regular season games and alternating Stanley Cup Finals coverage with ESPN
• UFC: Paramount signed a seven-year deal with the TKO Group Holdings (NYSE:TKO) fighting league as the exclusive home, taking the fights from pay-per-view to coverage on Paramount+ and CBS
• March Madness: The combination brings together the two companies that shared coverage of the annual NCAA Basketball March Madness tournament, creating more advertising and exclusive opportunities
• PGA Tour: Paramount holds rights to several PGA Tour events through 2030
• Big Ten Football/Big Ten Basketball: Paramount's CBS is the home to games through the 2029-2030 season
• NASCAR: Warner Bros. has some media rights to the racing league events through the 2031 season
• AEW: Wrestling league counts Warner Bros as a partner through the 2027-2028 season
• College Football Playoffs: While ESPN has the official rights, Warner Bros. has a sublicensing deal for two first-round games through 2029-2030. The deal increases to include two quarterfinal contests beginning in the 2026-2027 season

Other rights owned between the two companies include other college sports rights and many international rights owned by Warner Bros., including the rights to the Olympics across Europe through 2032.

Why Sports Rights Are Important

Live sports remain one of the key content types that can attract live viewers and also top advertising dollars. The combined sports portfolio can help the media company justify high prices for its cable channels like USA, TNT, TBS and more.

The company said it will combine its Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming platforms into one platform. With the combination of sports rights, expect a high monthly subscription price or some level of tiers that include live CBS and live sports content.

Paramount+ plans are currently $8.99 per month for the ad-supported plan and $13.99 for the ad-free plan with live CBS.

HBO Max plans are $10.99 per month for the ad-supported plan and $18.99 per month for the ad-free plan.

Paramount+ has around 79 million global subscribers, while Warner Bros. ended the recent quarter with 131.6 million combined subscribers across HBO Max and Discovery+.

Sports fans could be happy that they will need one less streaming platform to watch the main four North American sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL), but the question is how much the plans will cost.

Another item to watch will be pending sports rights. The combined media company will carry a high level of debt to get the combination to go through, which could hurt the company's credit ratings and ability to spend heavily on rights.

This, of course, comes in the age of streaming companies like Netflix, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) becoming bigger players in the live sports segment and bidding on rights.

The NFL rights for Paramount will be the key going forward for the combined company and could see tough decisions made on rights like NHL and AEW in the future, with the ability to need capital to spend when the NFL comes to the negotiating table, rights that could see more players like Netflix involved than in past negotiations.

Image: DavideAngelini/Shutterstock