Barry Diller attends a dialog with Anderson Cooper at 92NY in New York City, on May 20, 2025. – Dominik Bindl/Getty Images
NCS just isn’t 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 doable deal final yr, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Two folks granted anonymity to communicate freely for this story confirmed that Diller made repeated approaches to WBD and stated he stays excited by NCS.
Other billionaires and media traders have additionally explored potential paths to purchase NCS in recent times.
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 mum or dad 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 present 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 stated in response to the Journal report.
But that hasn’t stopped suitors from calling. As one individual concerned within the matter stated, “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 cut 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 current monetary submitting by WBD confirmed that NCS is anticipated to make $1.8 billion in income this yr and put up $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 degree final yr, one of many folks concerned within the matter stated.
The individual additionally famous that any such sale would have undesirable tax penalties for WBD.
There could also be sensible political issues, as effectively. 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 stated 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 effectively.
A media govt stated an tried Diller-led takeover of NCS can 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 evening. An IAC spokesperson declined to remark.
In an interview final yr 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 stated. “It just needs now to figure out a digital kind of footprint for the video.”
Late final yr, NCS launched a streaming subscription referred to as All Access, concentrating on cable cord-cutters and individuals who primarily devour information on their telephones.
NCS stated in a press launch this week that it exceeded “its subscription goals for 2025 and is off to a strong start in 2026.”
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