NCS will not be on the market, the corporate reiterated Wednesday after a information report about media mogul Barry Diller’s curiosity in shopping for the cable community from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Diller approached Warner Bros. Discovery, WBD for brief, a few potential deal final 12 months, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Two individuals granted anonymity to converse freely for this story confirmed that Diller made repeated approaches to WBD and mentioned he stays concerned with NCS.
Other billionaires and media buyers have additionally explored potential paths to purchase NCS lately.
However, there are a number of the reason why WBD has not parted methods with the information community.
For one, NCS is a cornerstone of the guardian firm’s profitable carriage offers with cable and satellite tv for pc distributors, which additionally cowl channels like TNT and the Food Network.
WBD is at the moment within the technique of splitting into two publicly traded items: Warner Bros., which is able to home the eponymous film studio and HBO, and Discovery Global, which is able to home NCS and different channels.
“NCS is an incredibly important part of the future of Discovery Global once it separates from Warner Bros. NCS was not and is not for sale,” a WBD spokesperson mentioned in response to the Journal report.
But that hasn’t stopped suitors from calling. As one individual concerned within the matter mentioned, “There’s nothing new about people being interested in the premier global news network, but there’s no good reason to sell NCS.”
Diller’s curiosity, although, could also be related to the continued Wall Street debate over Discovery Global’s future valuation.
Once the WBD break up takes impact this summer season, Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros for $27.75 per share. Discovery Global would commerce individually.
But Paramount has supplied $30 per share for all of WBD, together with NCS and the opposite channels. The WBD board has rejected Paramount’s hostile takeover push, arguing that the Netflix deal is superior. Among the explanations: The Netflix deal will let shareholders “realize the value of Discovery Global’s iconic brands and global reach.”
Paramount has argued that Discovery Global would have little to no fairness worth. WBD has rejected that and argued that Discovery Global might go for up to $6.86 per share in an acquisition.
A latest monetary submitting by WBD confirmed that NCS is anticipated to make $1.8 billion in income this 12 months and publish $600 million in revenue.
The Journal didn’t specify how a lot Diller supplied for the information community. But the report on Diller’s curiosity might ratchet up the general valuation discuss for Discovery Global.
Diller, 83, is the chairman of IAC, a media holding firm that controls People, The Daily Beast and dozens of different manufacturers.
His inquiry about NCS didn’t attain the WBD board of administrators stage final 12 months, one of many individuals concerned within the matter mentioned.
The individual additionally famous that any such sale would have undesirable tax penalties for WBD.
There could also be sensible political issues, as properly. Diller is a longtime critic of President Donald Trump and a outstanding Democratic donor — precisely the sort of individual Trump doesn’t need proudly owning NCS.
The president mentioned in December, shortly after Netflix signed the deal for Warner Bros, that “I think the people that have run NCS for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it’s imperative that NCS be sold.”
At the time, his feedback implied he favored Paramount’s hostile takeover bid, although he bashed Paramount later within the month as properly.
A media government mentioned an tried Diller-led takeover of NCS could be a non-starter as a result of “everybody understands that M&A goes through the Oval Office right now.”
Diller didn’t reply to a request for remark Wednesday night time. An IAC spokesperson declined to remark.
In an interview final 12 months timed to the discharge of his memoir, “Who Knew,” Diller expressed confidence in NCS’s future as a enterprise.
“What is the future of television?” host Fareed Zakaria requested. “Is NCS going to exist?”
“Unless idiots truly come to operate it, of course, it will exist,” Diller quipped in response.
“It is — I think it — it’s absolutely the only institutional news brand worldwide that I think actually has a future because it is video,” Diller mentioned. “It just needs now to figure out a digital kind of footprint for the video.”
Late final 12 months, NCS launched a streaming subscription known as All Access, concentrating on cable cord-cutters and individuals who primarily devour information on their telephones.
NCS mentioned in a press launch this week that it exceeded “its subscription goals for 2025 and is off to a strong start in 2026.”