05 Mar Is AI The Magic Sauce That Will Unlock Value In Media Mega-Mergers? [Deadline]
By Jake Kanter
March 5, 2026| It’s been a big week for media M&A fans. Connoisseurs of consolidation have been feasting on the news of Paramount’s last-gasp $110 billion swoop for Warner Bros. Discovery and the unexpectedly swift union of Banijay and All3Media.
The two deals are not comparable in size — Paramount will dwarf the newly formed Banijay production studio — but they share much in common, not least an embrace of the idea that bigger means better. The consolidators talked up scale, opined about empowering creatives and super-serving audiences/clients, but there is another commonality that links their ambition: Artificial intelligence.
Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison was asked about AI on Monday when sketching out the contours of the WBD deal on an investor call. The one-time Flyboys star said the technology would be “transformative,” pointing to comments from February, when he said the “power of IP enabled by AI” would be a “tailwind” for his new jumbo jet of a company.
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