VOD News | On 05, Dec 2025

Netflix is making a move to buy Warner Bros in a colossal deal worth more than $82 billion.

The potential acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery has been on the cards for some time, with Paramount Skydance and Comcast both notably in a bidding war to take over the media giant. It follows something of a rollercoaster few years for the old Hollywood studio, which merged with Discovery back in 2022. What ensued was a period of time when Warner notably rebranded HBO Max as Max, before reverting to HBO Max again, and sent a large number of Warner Bros films straight to its streaming platform post-Covid-19 pandemic or scrapped titles entirely for tax reasons.

In June this year, it was announced that the companies would split, leading to the run of acquisition bids – including from Paramount Skydance, itself a merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global.

The latest chapter in the Warner Bros saga is no less dramatic or seismic, with Netflix set to acquire Warner Bros, including its film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO – after WBD’s Global Networks division, Discovery Global, has separated off into a new publicly traded company.

That means beloved franchises, shows and movies such as The Big Bang Theory, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Friends, The Wizard of Oz and the DC Universe will join Netflix’s portfolio – but the potential knock-on impact across the industry is sizeable, including the planned launch of HBO Max in the UK in March 2026. Indeed, Netflix will own both Netflix and HBO Max, which will give it a dominant position in the streaming wars, more so than it already has, and Warner Bros will join MGM as a veteran Hollywood studio becoming owned by a tech company, after Amazon’s recent acquisition of MGM.

Netflix has said it expects to maintain Warner Bros’ current operations and build on its strengths, including theatrical releases for films – and, with all the relevant regulatory checks expected to take time, it will be a while until the reality of what the entertainment landscape will look like becomes clear.

As for the soon-to-be-separate Global Networks division, Discovery Global, it will include entertainment, sports and news television brands around the world including CNN, TNT Sports in the US, and Discovery, free-to-air channels across Europe, and digital products such as Discovery+ and Bleacher Report.

“Our mission has always been to entertain the world,” said Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix. “By combining Warner Bros’ incredible library of shows and movies—from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favorites like Harry Potter and Friends—with our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game, we’ll be able to do that even better. Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling.”

“This acquisition will improve our offering and accelerate our business for decades to come,” continued Greg Peters, co-CEO of Netflix. “Warner Bros has helped define entertainment for more than a century and continues to do so with phenomenal creative executives and production capabilities. With our global reach and proven business model, we can introduce a broader audience to the worlds they create—giving our members more options, attracting more fans to our best-in-class streaming service, strengthening the entire entertainment industry and creating more value for shareholders.”

“Today’s announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world to bring to even more people the entertainment they love to watch the most,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros Discovery. “For more than a century, Warner Bros. has thrilled audiences, captured the world’s attention, and shaped our culture. By coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world’s most resonant stories for generations to come.”

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