Ho, ho, ho! It’s a holiday tradition: Anonymous media executives make their 2025 industry predictions.
In honor of the 12 days of Christmas, we give you 12 predictions from some of the most powerful media and entertainment executives in the world, weighing in on the condition of anonymity so they can speak candidly about their visions of the year ahead. And then, because we have holiday cheer, we give you a bonus one. A baker’s dozen!
Here are the predictions:
1. Comcast will acquire the studio and streaming assets of Warner Bros. Discovery and merge them with NBCUniversal.
2. Comcast will acquire Charter and spin off the rest of NBCUniversal.
3. Fox will acquire most of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets.
4. Dana Walden will leave Disney at year-end when she doesn’t get the CEO job.
5. Jeff Bezos will be bullied into selling The Washington Post after President Trump makes it clear his space company, Blue Origin, will suffer for his paper’s coverage.
6. Several TV station groups will sell out of financial hardship.
7. The Trump administration relaxes TV station ownership rules, leading to CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox buying up their own affiliate stations.
8. Paramount Global will acquire Lionsgate after it spins off from Starz.
9. A big tech company will acquire video game maker Electronic Arts.
10. The M&A hype around the industry will be wildly overblown, and there will be far fewer deals than anyone thinks.
11. Paramount+, Peacock, and Max get bundled together.
12. The sports streaming service Venu will never launch, and Fox will license its sports content to ESPN’s streaming service.
13. Kathy Kennedy will depart Lucasfilm.
Let’s see what 2025 brings. Happy holidays!