CEO and President of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav and CEO of Paramount Skydance, David Ellison.Mike Blake | Brendan McDermid | ReutersIt’s time for everyone’s favorite holiday tradition — CNBC’s annual anonymous media executive predictions! CNBC spoke with 16 of the most powerful and influential executives in U.S. media, sports and entertainment, who all offered a prediction for the year ahead, under the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely and make bold bets. This year, we break the forecasts into three categories: M&A predictions, sports predictions and miscellaneous. Before we begin, a few shoutouts from last year’s list. (You can find the full slate here.) One executive predicted Comcast would acquire the studio and streaming assets of Warner Bros. Discovery and merge them with NBCUniversal. Close! Comcast did bid on those assets, but WBD ultimately chose an offer from Netflix. It’s now facing a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance. More on that to come in this year’s predictions, as you’d imagine.Another executive predicted 2025 would see several TV broadcast mergers, and that’s sort of been the case — Tegna and Nexstar announced a deal, and Sinclair has made a thus far unsuccessful hostile bid to acquire E.W. Scripps. Yet another guessed a big tech company would acquire videogame maker Electronic Arts. Not bad. The buyer wasn’t big tech, but EA did sell to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and private equity firm Silver Lake. And one executive last year pretty much nailed it. They said the sports streaming service Venu would never launch (it didn’t), and that Fox would license its sports content to Disney’s ESPN (Fox did launch a bundle with ESPN for $39.99 per month that combines the two companies’ sports programming for those that stream). Without further ado, here’s this year’s list:M&A predictionsExecutive 1: Paramount will buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery Had to get this one out of the way. This executive predicted Paramount will ultimately convince the WBD board to nix its deal with Netflix and sell the entire company to the Ellison family and their financial backers.Executive 2: Apple will buy NBCUniversalNow we’re getting bold! This executive predicted that while Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts loves the media business and wanted to own and control a combined NBCU-WBD, he’ll have to accept that with Warner Bros. out of the picture, there’s simply no deal left for him. This executive said Apple both wants and needs to bulk up in media to stay relevant, and NBCU is the best prize available.Frankly, it’s just nice to hear an Apple M&A prediction that’s not Disney. Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, attends the annual Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 9, 2025.David A. Grogan | CNBCExecutive 3: Amazon or YouTube will buy NBCUniversal assetsAlong similar lines, this executive said WBD will set a new, higher EBITDA multiple for media assets. That could lead Roberts to sell NBCU now — or at least, Peacock and Universal, the streaming and studio assets of NBCU. This executive hedged their prediction, though, and said the theme parks may or may not be part of a sale. To head off potential antitrust questions, this executive hypothesized that a tech company might be allowed to run a broadcast network like NBC if NBC’s owned-and-operated stations were sold separately. Executive 4: Paramount will lose WBD, divest CBS, buy NBCUniversalYes, a deal involving NBCU was quite popular this round. If Paramount doesn’t end up with WBD, it needs a backup plan to gain scale. NBCUniversal and Peacock would be a nice consolation prize, but regulators almost certainly wouldn’t allow Paramount to own both CBS and NBC. So, this executive guessed Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison will hive off CBS (more on CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss later) and keep NBC to entice Roberts to sell.Executive 5: Comcast will buy RokuNot so fast on selling NBCU, said this executive. Comcast still has another move to make. Roku has a market capitalization of about $16 billion. It’s a move Roberts can make that both gets Comcast into national video distribution while also adding Roku’s media assets to NBCU.Sports predictionsExecutive 6: Paramount will lose WBD and buy Main Street SportsHere’s an interesting one — this executive predicted Paramount will acquire the company formerly known as Diamond Sports Group. That would make Paramount an owner of 15 regional sports networks (and a partial owner of the YES Network), another way of pushing forward Ellison’s sports aspirations. A detail of a Wilson basketball is seen with the “March Madness” logo visible during practice day prior to the First Round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lenovo Arena on March 20, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina.Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images Sport | Getty ImagesExecutive 7: Both Men’s March Madness and the College Football Playoffs will expand next year Not the boldest prediction on the list, but perhaps the best bet at coming to fruition. The NCAA is considering upping the number of men’s teams in the tourney from 68 to 76. The CFP may expand from 12 to 16 teams — or perhaps even more. This executive thinks it will happen in 2026.Executive 8: The NFL will ink new, extended deals with its current media partnersLots of ink has been spilled on the competitive threats of YouTube and Netflix to the traditional media companies. The epitome of that threat is taking live NFL games away from the broadcasters and ESPN. This executive predicted the NFL will make sure this doesn’t happen by extending contracts with CBS, NBC, ABC/ESPN and Fox in 2026. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in September he’s open to starting those renewal talks as soon as next year. Executive 9: Amazon will acquire a new NFL international packageGoodell has talked about expanding the league’s international games to 16 per season involving all 32 teams. This executive estimated the league will shop this package of games next year to one buyer, and Amazon Prime Video will supplement its Thursday Night Football package with a Sunday package of games abroad.Executive 10: The NFL’s acceleration of media rights talks will push MLB and NHL to also pull forward their talks to 2026This executive figured there’s only so much money to go around for the big media companies. Instead of waiting for the NFL to do its deal in 2026 and having to live off what’s left over, it may be a better strategic move for the MLB and NHL to stay ahead of the NFL to maximize media rights value. Roger Goodell, NFL Commssioner, speaking with CNBC at the annual Al …
