Nexstar’s Majority-Stake CW Acquisition Solves Problems For Everyone

Nexstar’s acquisition of a 75% stake in the CW Network may not look like TV’s other recent mega-deals, but it doesn’t have to. Despite no cash being exchanged, according to Variety’s reporting last week, the deal is still poised to have major implications for everyone involved, and solve a lot of problems in the process.

For Nexstar, owning the CW allows the media group to continue to scale its operation from local to national coverage and be a more serious player in TV news. To-date, that effort has consisted largely of its acquisition of The Hill and the launch of NewsNation (which has lacked for much success amid conservative coverage bias claims and lack of major traction in a cable news environment already dominated by three behemoths). Having a broadcast arm to reframe that proposition and potentially many of its NewsNation shows becomes well worth taking on much of the CW’s $100 million debt, as Variety reported was its primary responsibility in the transaction.

As a result of that rumored — eventual — pivot of CW programming toward more news, the CW’s current scripted programming inherits an uncertain future on broadcast. But lucky for those shows, former majority stakeholders Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery both operate streaming services that could always use more content with some built-in fandom.

WBD, in particular, could use some good news after a tough few weeks (not to mention the most recent outcry after 200 older Sesame Street episodes were removed from HBO Max). And as CEO David Zaslav is cutting costs everywhere he can, shedding tens of millions of the CW’s debt off his new mega corp.’s books is very positive step.

Another positive for observers: Using the combined Discovery+/HBO Max streaming service as a liferaft for CW shows it owns, while also working to reclaim its extensive DC Comics-related show inventory from Netflix. The CW previously ended its streaming distribution deal with Netflix for the CW shows back in 2019, but that only stopped new shows from appearing on the service while shows already on Netflix (like DC’s The Flash) kept adding more seasons.

This isn’t too different from what we saw with Marvel’s previous Netflix deal, which saw various titles and even original series live on Netflix for a long stretch of time before everything was eventually brought back “home” to Disney+. Even if it takes some time (we may be waiting until the end of this decade), WBD will do the same with these DC properties, leading to a likely subscriber boost in the process HBO Max/Discovery+ becomes the exclusive home to the “Arrowverse” shows from the CW.

With all DC properties under one roof, Zaslav’s vision of a more sustainable, long-term business plan around those characters and stories becomes more realistic. And he gets hundreds of hours of bingeable content to market worldwide on WBD’s own service. With the CW existing in the U.S. only, Netflix has been able to use those shows as part of its own global reach strategy — something WBD would very much like to be able to do instead. Plus, any future DC shows can just live on HBO Max’s side of the house, removing any lingering confusion from the last decade.

The same benefits apply for Paramount, even if without the raft of comic book IP. On top of getting out of the CW’s debt, Paramount gets its CW shows like Nancy Drew and the wider universe of Walker, Texas Ranger-related programming, among others. For a service looking for franchises beyond Star Trek, this is a start at the very least. And again, these are shows with built-in, existing fan bases that can help grow Paramount+’s subscriber numbers.

Where things get more interesting for Paramount, too, is the fact that many of its shows in question could either continue to air on the CW with seasons moving to streaming after completion on broadcast — or just move to streaming altogether where new seasons could be developed. That’s not a luxury that WBD has with several of its shows including The Flash and Riverdale, which started under the terms of the Netflix distribution deal. Anything created after (like the Walker shows and Nancy Drew) is free to go live on their respective parent company’s streaming service.

If anyone truly “loses” in this situation, it’s the cast, crew and fans of the DC shows and other programming that gets cancelled as a result of either the Nexstar acquisition, CW’s previous deal with Netflix or a combination of both. Will those shows continue to exist on streaming? Yes. But for stories that seemingly screeched to a halt too soon, you can point to corporate machinations as a prime reason for why.

There are still many more details to iron out as Nexstar takes over the CW, and the deal hasn’t even been finalized just yet. But expect a lot of change once the parties that be start collecting their “winnings” from this new arrangement.