Warner Bros. Discovery’s Scary Movie

David Zaslav must like scary movies. The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO met with Paramount Global chief Bob Bakish this week, we and others reported, to discuss a merger, among other things. For the uninitiated, such a combination would put together the Warner Bros. and Paramount film and TV studios, as well as TV networks such as TNT, TBS, Showtime, HBO, CBS and CNN, plus streaming services like Max. Investors quickly made it clear they were not in favor. Initial news of the meeting—broken by Axios—sent both WBD and Paramount stocks falling. WBD’s already-battered stock closed down 5.7% while Paramount closed down 2%.

There’s no doubt the beleaguered TV industry is about to embark on a new round of consolidation as a way of squeezing out more costs. In this kind of environment, all sorts of deals get discussed, some dumber than others. According to The Wall Street Journal, Zaslav is interested in the idea of a merger with Paramount. You might wonder why, given how badly positioned Paramount is for the future—two-thirds of its revenues come from traditional TV networks, more than for WBD and other TV companies. But Zaslav loves the old-TV business, as he has frequently made clear. If there was a time machine available, he’d climb into it and set the clock for 1995.