The AT&T-owned WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS are looking at selling most or all of The CW Network according to The Wall Street Journal. The network, which primarily caters to teenagers and young adults, reportedly has several interested parties looking at making this acquisition, including the U.S.’ biggest broadcaster, Nextar.
Before you start panicking too much about what this means for your favourite DC TV shows, the site notes that "The most prevalent scenario is Nexstar’s taking a controlling stake in the CW, with CBS and WarnerMedia remaining as minority owners and receiving commitments to be the primary program suppliers for the network." In other words, they would continue making shows like The Flash and Superman & Lois.
It’s a little surprising WarnerMedia isn’t taking this opportunity to make those DC TV series HBO Max exclusives, but the fact the network itself hasn’t been profitable for several years doesn’t mean the content itself isn’t.
Selling shows like The Flash and Riverdale to Netflix makes The CW a lot of money (nationally and internationally), though it does sound like the plan moving forward is to bolster the HBO Max subscription numbers by sending those shows there instead. With that in mind, it makes sense to sell the network itself, but keep making shows for it that can then be used to drive up revenue elsewhere across the WarnerMedia empire.
We’ll keep you updated, particularly if this does end up having any sort of impact on the DC TV slate.
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