What could Paramount, Comcast and Netflix do with the originals?

With over a century of the most popular film and television content, it’s no wonder why Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix Bid on Warner Bros. Discovery Origins.

Paramount made an initial bid in September to acquire Warner Bros. Studios. Discovery, WBD’s flagship company, which months earlier had announced plans to split itself into two companies, is formally exploring a sale.

WBD’s plans mirrored those of Comcast — spinning off its cable networks from its movie properties and streaming service HBO Max.

The sought-after content library includes franchises like DC Super Heroes, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Looney Tunes, and Scooby-Doo. It is also the distributor for Legendary’s Dune franchise and the Godzilla and King Kong films. Cable networks include CNN, TNT, TBS, TruTV and others.

Warner Bros. aims to Discovery expects to close the sale by mid-to-late December. Earlier this week, the company received second-round offers from potential buyers, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified when talking about internal operations. As of Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery is still considering offers and it remains unclear whether there will be another round of bidding.

“All three candidates have the potential to be advantageous, which is why Warner Bros. would be a very attractive acquisition,” said Sean Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “But capabilities are not enough. Resources, experience and proven ability to implement must be balanced.”

Here’s what each suitor can do with WBD assets.

Comcast is in the process of spinning off its portfolio of cable networks, which includes CNBC, but will retain the NBC broadcast network, its Peacock streaming service, Universal Film Studio and its theme parks.

Due to its exit from the cable TV business, Comcast is not interested in the Warner Bros. network group. Discovery huge. Therefore, Comcast’s offer includes a provision that would allow WBD to spin off its cable networks at any time before the proposed acquisition closes, CNBC previously reported.

Warner Bros.’s intellectual property will Discovery has agreed to provide immediate support to NBCUniversal’s Peacock. The streaming service lags far behind its peers in terms of subscriber numbers, with just 41 million customers as of September 30. The platform focused heavily on sports programming but lacked original content.

Beyond superhero fare, WBD’s TV content could bolster NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock with shows like “IT: Welcome to Derry,” “The Pitt,” “The Last of Us” and a pair of shows from the Game of Thrones universe.

The addition of Warner Bros. IP Discovery to the lineup would allow Universal to boost the number of its popular franchises, stock its streaming service with TV content and expand its theme park business.

“For Comcast, this will simply add to the depth of Universal’s existing slate that already blends a healthy balance of intellectual property with bolder, often original, content,” Robbins said. “They tick a lot of necessary boxes, without a doubt.”

Universal already owns a wide range of franchises including Jurassic Park, Fast & Furious and Despicable Me as well as a host of popular horror films.

“Comcast — they have a very good movie slate,” said Doug Kreutz, senior media and entertainment analyst at TD Coin. “They’re trying to build Disney Prime piece by piece, and I think having a superhero brand would be another step in that direction. I don’t know that that’s something that they particularly consider a strategic necessity. I think having more intellectual property in general is something that, of course, you always want.”

Warner Bros.’ DC Studios is set to release Discovery, now under the direction of James Gunn and Peter Safran, for a slew of theatrical releases as well as upcoming TV series. The couple’s first film, “Superman,” which was released in July, grossed more than $600 million at the global box office and received positive reviews from critics.

There’s a Supergirl movie, a Superman sequel, a second Batman movie from Matt Reeves, and a Clayface movie. On the television front, DC has plans for shows centered around the Green Lantern Corps; Wonder Woman’s Amazons Island Origins; And some lesser-known but fan-favorite comic book characters like Booster Gold.

Comcast and Warner Bros. have Discovery already has some shared intellectual property. Parent NBCUniversal licenses the rights to Wizarding World to its theme parks. Acquiring the film and television rights to Harry Potter will allow the company more control over production and how that translates into rides, experiences and merchandise.

“There are synergistic opportunities you can take advantage of if you have authority over film and television production, along with owning theme parks,” Kreutz said.

Disney This strategy is planned. The company’s intellectual property portfolio has been the bedrock of its theme parks since the first location opened its doors in 1955. Disney controls not only the production of content, but also how it is structured into its themed experiences.

Likewise, the most surprising bidder, Netflix, was only looking at WBD’s broadcast and studio assets.

After all, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos asserted during the company’s third-quarter earnings in October that the company has “no interest in owning legacy media networks.”

Initially, analysts and industry insiders speculated that Netflix’s interest in Warner Bros. Discovery was merely an attempt to raise prices for its competitors who were keen to acquire WBD’s assets. But the streaming giant has made a mostly cash offer, and remains a competitive bidder, sources told CNBC.

And the streaming giant could seriously benefit from WBD’s content library.

As a relatively new player in the space – Netflix didn’t release original content until 2012 – it has taken the company a long time to build its franchises. Because of this, Netflix didn’t even launch a marketing department until 2019 and didn’t have an official online store until 2021.

Now, it has a collection of strong intellectual properties such as “Stranger Things,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” “Bridgerton,” “Wednesday,” and “Squid Games.” Like Comcast, access to beloved franchises that have built-in audiences would be a huge boon for Netflix.

However, industry experts are more concerned with how the company handles WBD originals that have traditionally been released in theaters.

“With Netflix, it’s no longer a question of how they leverage it as much as it is a deep concern about how they handle the Warner Bros. legacy, particularly from a theatrical perspective,” Robbins said. “The money will certainly be there, yes, as with the initial offering. But will they be more willing to act like a traditional movie studio than they have shown so far?”

Netflix has long been opposed to releasing films in theaters, doing so only to stay in the running for awards, to please notable directors, or to cash in on sensational titles. The streamer has always argued that its content is meant to be delivered to subscribers through the Netflix platform and has limited the runtime of its theatrical releases in cinemas.

This strategy has allowed Netflix to avoid costly marketing campaigns, which are typically estimated at about half of what is spent on the production budget. However, it often puts the company at odds with theatrical partners. The company also doesn’t share box office data, which traditional movie studios do.

“Many in the industry feel that Netflix’s purchase of Warner will be the death knell for some of the most important aspects of filmmaking, its properties and long-standing traditions,” Robbins said. “Netflix will need a major transformation to begin to alleviate these feelings.”

Netflix has notified Warner Bros. management. Discovery said it would honor contractual agreements to release films in theaters if it secured a deal to acquire its assets, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Things are moving quickly at Paramount.

The company recently merged with Skydance, and in short order, new CEO and Chairman David Ellison has signed on creative and executive talent, greenlit new franchises and struck a $7.7 billion deal for the live UFC rights.

The strategy was laid out in an open letter from Ellison published in early August, in which he told investors that Paramount would invest in “high-quality storytelling and cutting-edge technology” to help “define the next era of entertainment.”

Ellison hopes the next era will include a Warner Bros. acquisition. Discovery – in full.

“Paramount has struggled in recent years to get the same kind of consistent, first-rate franchise production as some of its competitors,” Robbins said. “There is a strong argument that absorbing Warner Bros. Library will move the needle in a more material way.”

Paramount has a host of franchises like Star Trek, Transformers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Paw Patrol, and SpongeBob SquarePants, but much of its theatrical success has been tied to one actor in particular.

“Paramount’s most important intellectual property is a 63-year-old man doing his own stunts,” Kreutz said. “Maybe they’ll make an AI-powered version of Tom Cruise and we’ll keep getting Tom Cruise movies for the next 100 years. But the next thing down the ladder for them is Star Trek.”

Before the Paramount-Skydance merger, the studio released about eight films a year, Ellison told investors in the company’s third-quarter earnings report in November. The new goal is to release at least 15 films in theaters in 2026.

So far, next year’s slate includes about 10 titles, some produced solely by Paramount and others as part of the studio’s distribution deals. Most studios update their calendar throughout the year, especially as new independent features go on sale during film festivals. The acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and its theatrical slate would easily see Paramount exceed its target.

However, Kreutz noted that when studios merge, the number of films tends to decline in the following years.

“If Warner were to merge with any of these other companies, you would see some similar dynamism on the film side, you would see a similar dynamism on the TV production side, and you would likely see a similar dynamism in everything they do with the streaming platform,” he said. “Presumably, in all three cases, there will be consolidation of streaming platforms, potentially resulting in less content for consumers.”

Where Paramount departs from competing bids is that it wants all of WBD’s services, including its own cable networks. It’s worth noting that CNN will bolster Paramount’s news coverage, which already includes CBS, and the addition of TNT, TBS and TruTV will be a big addition to the company’s sports coverage.

Live broadcast rights to sporting events are rare and only become available when previous deals expire. apple Already emerging as the future home of Formula 1, Major League Baseball is waiting until its contracts expire after the 2028 season to reorganize its media packages. This means Paramount will have few other high-quality sports assets to bid on and acquire in the medium term.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery has the rights to broadcast games from the NHL, Major League Baseball, NCAA March Madness basketball along with the French Open and NASCAR.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant will become the new parent company of CNBC based on Comcast’s planned spin-off of Versant.

— CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.