Here’s everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, February 27th, 2026:
A TED SARANDOS INTERVIEW WITH SOME FACTS THAT MIGHT SEEM FAMILIAR TO READERS OF THIS NEWSLETTER
Welcome to all of the new subscribers I picked up over the weekend, thanks to my Friday newsletter recounting the behind-the-scenes discussions at Netflix ahead of its decision to walk away from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw had an interview yesterday with Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos and it was gratifying to see that his explanation of what had happened tracked very closely with what I reported on Friday.
For instance, here is what I wrote about Netflix's decision to allow WBD to reopen negotiations with Paramount for seven days:
The seeds of this decision were planted ten days ago when Netflix decided to allow Warner Bros. Discovery to open negotiations for a seven-day period with Paramount Skydance executives. It wasn't something Netflix had to agree to do, its merger deal with WBD gave it exclusive negotiation rights. But I've been told the decision was driven in part by the steady drip of leaks to the press from people in David Ellison's camp, often via Fox Biz Senior Correspondent and NY Post columnist Charles Gasparino. He continued to argue in his columns that Ellison was the only person who could get a deal done with the Trump Administration and he passed along a number of vague promises Paramount Skydance was prepared to increase the terms of its previous "final offer."
At some point, Netflix executives decided the best option was to see what Paramount was willing to do in an effort to win its merger bid. In part because that new "final offer" would provide a baseline for Netflix's decision whether or not to increase its bid. But also because reopening the negotiations would make it less likely Paramount would attempt to block Netflix's bid in court by claiming the WBD hadn't been willing to hear a so-called "superior offer." As one executive explained to me at the time, "It's a gamble, but at the end of the day, we need clarity on the possible parameters of this deal."
And here is how Sarandos framed it to Shaw:
Go back to the seven-day window, the waiver. It’s pretty unusual. We did it because they kept creating uncertainty in the market — not just in the stock market, in the market generally. People were making decisions based on trying to figure out how the outcome of this deal was going to be. We wanted to eliminate uncertainty as quickly as we could.
I said, ‘Look, take seven days, figure out if you have a real offer, and if you do, we have a matching right.’ Go figure out if you have another offer. What we want is a hard date on the shareholder vote. So, that’s what happened.
The only real difference between my piece and the Bloomberg interview is that Sarandos continues to insist the company had no concerns about politically-motivated opposition from the Trump Administration and/or conservatives. Which isn't quite the case, but there's not much else he can say. He certainly is not going to pick a culture wars fight that would be pointless now that a merger with WBD is out of the picture.
I did find this exchange between Shaw and Sarandos enlightening:
What was your first reaction when you saw the Susan Rice comments?
I don’t want or expect our board members to be out talking about politics ever, let alone in the middle of a deal, but they do have the right to speak, and she wasn’t speaking for Netflix.
Did you and her speak about it at all, or did the board talk about it at all?
She and I talked about it.
And did you contemplate taking her off the board because of it?
No.
WE ARE NOW IN THE TAMPONS PORTION OF THE MERGER DISCUSSION
Another piece of coverage from over the weekend came from CNBC reporter and NY Post columnist Charles Gasparino, who wrote a piece that claimed that Netflix's ability to win over Republican legislators was damaged after one visiting lawmaker discovered a container of tampons in a men's bathroom at Netflix headquarters:
During the deal negotiations, while Netflix was wooing skeptical GOP lawmakers that it wasn’t a left-wing company looking to get more powerful by snapping up WBD, a delegation of lawmakers paid a visit to its headquarters, and one was both shocked and disturbed to find a basket containing tampons in the men’s restroom.
To be clear, there are other factors involved in CEO Ted Sarandos’s decision to cancel his nearly completed purchase of WBD’s studio and streaming service. But the “Tampon Incident,” as it has become known on Capitol Hill, does carry some weight in the unwavering political opposition from the GOP to Sarandos’ ambitions.
“This is 2026, not 2020,” said one GOP staffer with first-hand knowledge of the matter. “What were they thinking?”
Gasaparino is not only extremely conservative, but he has also been a regular source for leaks from the Ellison camp during the merger negotiations. So I think it's fair to be skeptical of any story like this that comes from a GOP staffer. But I am also not convinced the story happened the way it is being portrayed. I've been to Netflix's headquarters and a number of their bathrooms are gender-neutral. Which means that having tampons in a bathroom used by men and women is not a shocking turn of events. I also did what Gasaparino apparently didn't bother to do - check with someone at Netflix headquarters. Who told me that as far as they know, there are no men's bathrooms in the building that contain tampons. Although it's certainly possible, given the number of bathrooms. What is true is that many of the bathrooms at Netflix HQ include all kinds of toiletries.
But I don't want to let the main point of this story slide. It's framed as Netflix having possibly damaged their merger bid due to the presence of tampons in a bathroom. Which should not be normalized. It's a bit like saying, "you know, I was going to sell you my house. But I see you used pronouns in your email."
I AM NO PSYCHIC, BUT I AM PRETTY SURE HE DIDN'T LOOK AT PLUTO TV BEFORE WRITING THIS
I wanted to mention this piece in The Hollywood Reporter, which took a look at how the streaming assets of Paramount and WBD "jibe?" This paragraph jumped out at me:
Discovery’s and Paramount’s respective lean-back programming pairs well for an ad-supported streaming service, like the popular entry levels of Paramount+ and Discovery+, and even better for Paramount’s Pluto TV FAST service. A person with knowledge of the internal plans for Pluto not long ago told THR that the service had been on the sales block for years — though it has experienced recent struggles, an injection of HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel and TLC programming could be the revival Pluto needs. Chow down on endless House Hunters aside an all-you-can-stream buffet of Ridiculousness.
Not to be critical (okay, I mean to be a bit critical), Pluto already has WBD FAST channels. More than a dozen of them. Some of them branded as coming from WBTV, some of them featuring a specific WBD personality such as Bobby Flay and some themed channels, such as the one that features programming from the Magnolia Network. In fact, over the past year, WBD has rolled out FAST channels on nearly every FAST platform. So no, this merger wouldn't impact that at all.
THE PARAMOUNT/WBD MERGER IS GOOD NEWS IF YOU WANT TO PAY MORE FOR YOUR CABLE BUNDLE
It's no secret that the cost of the traditional cable bundle continues to increase, even as more people cut the bundle and shift to streaming services. Which is a bit counterintuitive, because in most industries, a declining customer base puts downward pressure on costs.
But that hasn't happened in the cable TV bundle business because even with a smaller customer base, it is a massive driver of revenue for the major media companies. In fact, the most profitable parts of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery right now are their collections of cable channels. So these companies have a strong interest in keeping that gravy train alive as long as possible.
How do you keep those healthy profit margins as high as possible when you're shedding customers every year? One way has been to slowly cut programming costs. So an increasing number of formerly vital channels have had their original programming stripped away and have become essentially "zombie networks." They're dead, but are still able to generate a small amount of money with whatever ads can be sold against reruns as well as whatever few cents of subscriber fees can be collected from Pay-TV companies. It's not a huge amount per channel. But given that it's almost all profit, it adds up.
But even the most watched cable networks are seeing substantial original programming cutbacks. For instance, the Food Network is airing about a third less original hours of programming than it did several years ago. And if you tuned in last Saturday hoping to see some new cooking programs, what you found were a bunch of reruns and a four-hour block of season one episodes of Kitchen Nightmares.
So imagine you are a Pay-TV company, whether it's Comcast or a streaming live TV service such as YouTube TV. You're not happy with these changes and you'd like to drop some channels. Maybe pay less for channels that are cutting back on originals. Good luck with that.
When the next carriage negotiations come around with Paramount Skydance WBD, this is the number of channels that will be included as part of this one negotiation.
Paramount Skydance
BET
BET GOSPEL
BET HER
BET SOUL
BET JAMS
CBS
CBS Sports Network
CMT
CMT Music
Comedy Central
Logo
MTV
MTV2
MTV Classic
MTV Tres
MTVU
Nickelodeon
Nick Jr.
Nick Music
Nicktoons
Paramount Network
Pop
Smithsonian
Teen Nick
TV Land
VH1
Also:
Paramount Skydance & WBD each own 12.5 of The CW
Diginets Dabl (operated by Weigel Broadcasting) and Fave TV (exclusive to CBS stations)
Warner Bros. Discovery
American Heroes Channel
Animal Planet
Cartoon Network
Cooking Channel (69% with Nexstar Media Group)
Destination America
Discovery
Discovery Familia
Discovery Family (owns 60% of this partnership with Hasbro)
Discovery Life
Food Network (69% with Nexstar Media Group)
HGTV
Investigation Discovery
Magnolia Network (joint venture with Chip & Joanna Gaines)
MLB Network (owns 16.67%)
OWN (95% with Harpo Productions)
Science Channel
TBS
TLC
TNT
Travel Channel
TruTV
Now to be clear, not every channel listed below is included on every Pay-TV service. But most of them are, and each one of them is going to cost something per subscriber. And likely more than it costs more than under the terms of the last carriage deal. Even worse for Pay-TV customers, these carriage deals include a “favored nations” clause. Which means every Pay-TV service has to pay the highest current rate when their carriage deal ends. So the costs always increase and there are no discounts.
So your bill is going to go up a few dollars and there's nothing you or the Pay TV companies can do to stop it. Sometimes, the big media companies will allow some of their zombie channels to be stuck in an "add-on" entertainment bundle. But that doesn't lower the overall cost of the cable bundle.
I realize this is a very complex issue and I have just touched on some of the highlights. But I am writing this so you'll know who to blame in the next year or two when you discover your cable bundle is getting more expensive. Even as there is less to watch.
ODDS AND SODS
* Front Office Sports is reporting that Iran's World Cup future is in doubt after the recent attacks by the United States and some of it allies. The Iranian team is set to play three games in the U.S. beginning in around 100 days from now.
* Semafor is reporting that CBS News head Bari Weiss is incredibly "energized" by the news around the war with Iran and has been reaching out to book guests directly to speak about it.
* Italy has unveiled a 35% tax credit for animated projects. It’s higher than the one offered to live-action films.
WHAT'S COMING TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND
MONDAY, MARCH 2ND:
* Bachelor Mansion Takeover Series Premiere (HGTV)
* Bedtime Stories With Ryan Series Premiere (Nick Jr.)
* Gabby's Dollhouse Season Premiere (Netflix)
* Murdoch Mysteries Season Premiere (Acorn TV)
* Tribal Justice Season Premiere (Prime Video)
* Wild Vacation Rentals Series Premiere (HGTV)
TUESDAY, MARCH 3RD:
* NCIS Spring Premiere (CBS)
* NCIS Origins Spring Premiere (CBS)
* NCIS Sydney Spring Premiere (CBS)
* Bruce Bruce: I Ain't Playin' (Netflix)
* RJ Decker Series Premiere (ABC)
SEE YOU THIS TUESDAY!