ESPN’s Power Play and the Battle for Warner Bros. Discovery

Here’s some entertainment business news you may want to know about:

* Disney has pulled its channels — including ABC and ESPN — from YouTube TV, officially over a failure to agree on carriage fees. But I suspect there’s more to it. Streaming cable services like YouTube TV rely heavily on live sports to attract and keep subscribers, and ABC and ESPN are major sources for that content. Without access to NFL, NBA, and college football games, many subscribers may cancel and go straight to the source — the Disney and ESPN apps. It’s a clever way for ESPN+ to pad its streaming numbers. If you’re already paying for YouTube TV primarily for ESPN, the pivot makes sense.

* Meanwhile, Netflix and Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal) have joined Paramount as potential bidders to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. All the fat cats are now trying to get in on the network that streams Gilded Age. Comcast — stuck at roughly 41 million subscribers despite the Taylor Sheridan deal — seems ready to make a real push to grow, possibly through an acquisition.

At first, Comcast didn’t appear to be a contender, largely because the President reportedly dislikes CEO Brian Roberts and the company itself. But Comcast recently made a significant donation to the White House’s $300 million ballroom expansion and still has other potential plays to win favor — though none are great: firing Jimmy Fallon, canceling SNL, or axing Rachel Maddow. One particularly wild scenario, floated by Rich Greenfield (via Puck), imagines a merged NBC and CNN under one news organization led by Erika Kirk (widow of Charlie). It sounds absurd, but in a media landscape where Bari Weiss now oversees CBS News, nothing feels impossible.

Netflix, for its part, has also jumped into the mix after previously claiming no interest in a deal of this size. One theory suggests Netflix and Comcast could team up to outbid David Ellison, with Netflix taking Warner Bros. and Comcast getting HBO. It’s better than the alternative.

Still, the odds-on favorite remains David Ellison, who seems determined to acquire the company. He has nearly limitless funds and has already greased the necessary political wheels — meaning Bari Weiss could conceivably end up overseeing not only CBS News but CNN as well. And people wonder why network and cable news are dying.