With all the court cases settled, Paramount-Skydance will officially take over Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday October 6, 2026.
What this means long-term is up for much debate, but in the short-term (next five years), it might be a bit of status quo for many things Channels DVR users take advantage of, particularly with the linear stations, which I'll take as a small win. Here is an overview of the terms of the settlement:
From the article:
BASIC CABLE LICENSING AND CARRIAGE
** Separate negotiations: For five years after the merger, Paramount and Warner Bros must negotiate distribution and carriage deals for their respective basic cable channels independently to preserve market competition.
** Information firewalls: The settlement restricts the sharing or use of one legacy company's confidential licensing and affiliate data in negotiations involving the other.
** Affiliate fee guardrails: Limits changes to affiliate fee negotiations and agreements with pay-TV and satellite providers to protect consumer pricing.
So I'm reading that as Paramount-Skydance can't take WBD's stations behind the Paramount+ paywall like they've done with their own stations. However, that doesn't mean anything for DRM, but I imagine they'd rather avoid implementing new technology over the next five years until they can run out the clock and merge their technology stacks completely together.
I guess what I'm saying, then, is let's not panic yet and just assume we'll be able to get all our legally entitled stations one way or another!