Solely corporations which have scale in content material and a know-how engine that drives its discovery and monetisation can compete,’ explains Vanita Kohli Khandekar.

IMAGE: A scene from Squid Sport.

Ever because it obtained into streaming in 2007, Netflix has damaged each rule within the media trade playbook.

It has dropped whole seasons of authentic exhibits in a single go, stored promoting out of its originals like Squid Sport, Stranger Issues or Bridgerton but priced itself at lower than a 3rd of cable TV in america.

With 302 million subscribers and $39 billion in revenues in 2024, it’s the largest standalone streaming participant on the earth. There are, nevertheless, limits to pay-driven progress.

Now, because it seeks to scale up, Netflix is changing into extra just like the legacy media gamers it took on. It launched ad-supported programming and has obtained into sports activities.

Its co-Chief Govt Officer, President and Director Ted Sarandos even has a number one function within the merger drama unfolding in Hollywood at the moment.

Paramount Skydance, the $29 billion (2024 revenues) studio behind Titanic, Forrest Gump, and the Mission Inconceivable movies, amongst others, had made three unsuccessful bids for rival Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) by October 2025.

The final one was at $58 billion. Quickly Netflix obtained into the sport. On Friday, December 5, it introduced a deal to amass WBD at a worth of $83 billion.

Simply two days later, on December 8, Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid with a suggestion of $108 billion.

 

IMAGE: A scene from The Huge Bang Principle.

WBD, which made a income of over $39 billion in 2024, is an efficient agency to have.

It owns TV studios which have churned out big hits like The Huge Bang Principle, movie studios that created Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and, extra just lately, Barbie.

Its largest attraction for Netflix maybe is HBO Max, the service behind Sport of Thrones, The White Lotus and different iconic exhibits.

There could be some overlap however HBO Max’s 128 million subscribers are coveted by everybody. Then there are Warner’s linear networks like TNT and Discovery.

These have been a part of the cope with Paramount however not with Netflix. Warner’s estimated earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, or Ebitda, from streaming and movies for 2026 is $3.3 billion.

Netflix is paying 25 occasions that, says a observe from Media Companions Asia.

Paramount has come again with a suggestion that’s 32 occasions that. Examine that to the a lot bigger Disney, which is buying and selling at 11 occasions its Ebitda of $19 billion.

Nearly each analyst and commentator is questioning not the logic however the worth at which this deal is being mentioned.

During the last twenty years, most media mergers have disillusioned — they’ve ended up destroying manufacturers and wealth as a result of cultures merely do not match even when the ‘synergies’ look good on paper.

If it wins, Netflix has lined up $59 billion in debt, says Media Companions Asia. And if Paramount does, it should increase big quantities too.

Each these corporations are able to constructing extra programming IP or mental property and a much bigger enterprise in lower than half the cash they plan on spending.

Positive, acquisition might pace issues up however at what worth? What is that this actually about?

IMAGE: A scene from Bridgerton.

It’s a battle for survival.

After legacy revenue engines like TV decline, synthetic intelligence (AI) enters the content material stream to crash prices and revenues, tech-media has devoured up all there’s — the fellows who will stay, bloodied however standing are those with scale.

Funnily sufficient, this sport started with Netflix and streaming. It’s now enjoying out in its full glory.

Give it some thought.

The Web and streaming have democratised leisure, helped niches and lengthy tails.

But it surely has additionally consolidated distribution and audiences to a degree the place it’s inconceivable to succeed in case your present/story does not work throughout viewers clusters globally.

The businesses that personal the most important distribution platforms — Google with YouTube, Meta with Instagram, Fb and WhatsApp, Amazon with Prime Video/Music, Apple — are those that may rule the media sport.

The battle is for audiences and their time; it does not matter what nation, language or format they’re on.

And solely corporations which have that scale in content material and a know-how engine that drives its discovery and monetisation can compete.

IMAGE: A scene from Sluggish Horses.

Watch Sluggish Horses, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Tehran, Severance, Down Cemetery Street, Dangerous Sisters on Apple TV. These are a few of the greatest exhibits I watched this 12 months.

Every of them is beautifully written, forged and produced, setting a bar that almost all streaming providers will discover laborious to match.

Apple TV makes a lack of reportedly a billion {dollars} a 12 months. For a $416 billion company that could be a rounding-off error, say analysts.

That’s one finish of the enterprise.

On the different finish is YouTube, TikTok and others with thousands and thousands of hours of video and shorts.

At over 2.85 billion customers, YouTube is the brand new TV, and it combines a little bit of all the pieces that legacy media affords.

To compete on this panorama, scale is essential, which is what Netflix and Paramount are searching for to construct, albeit at too excessive a value.

If Netflix and Warner mix, it creates a participant with an estimated $70 billion in income. If Paramount and Warner do, that determine is $79 billion.

Both mixture can be globally forward of YouTube ($61 billion) and The Walt Disney Firm, which excluding parks and experiences, is at $58 billion, in keeping with the Media Companions Asia observe. (These figures take note of proforma 2025 revenues for related streaming and studio companies solely).

Now think about what might occur if Apple, Amazon or Meta with their gargantuan measurement obtained into the sport.

There may be sufficient materials right here to begin writing a brand new model of HBO’s Succession.

Pictures curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff