r/MediaMergers

What the late Ted Turner brought to WB were cable networks like TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network, a news powerhouse in CNN, the pre-1986 MGM film and cartoon library (including The Wizard of Oz, Tom & Jerry, Singin’ in the Rain, A Christmas Story, 2001: A Space Odyssey, How the Grinch Stole Christmas TV special, and the Fleischer/Famous Studios Popeye the Sailor cartoons), pre-1950 WB films that Turner had owned (such as The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca), Hanna-Barbera’s catalog (including Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Wacky Races, and The Smurfs cartoon), the missing piece of the Looney Tunes library that WB didn’t own until then (mainly the pre-1948 color cartoons and select B&W cartoons), the North American and Australian distribution rights (not sequel, remake, and theatrical play rights) to most of the RKO Pictures library such as Citizen Kane and King Kong (exceptions include the Disney productions and It’s a Wonderful Life and The Bells of St. Mary’s, which belonged to Republic Pictures, now Skydance through Paramount), and the production companies of New Line Cinema (Nightmare on Elm Street, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Mortal Kombat, and the first big screen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films) and Castle Rock, founded by the late Rob Reiner. That’s a lot of new properties, for sure.

I think out of all the mergers Warner Bros went through since the 70s decade, the Turner merger was the least bad of them all. It gave the studio more properties that would be taken to the big and small screens (look at how much Scooby-Doo and Tom & Jerry content we got from WB in the last 30 years and that we’ll continue getting for the foreseeable future) and it gave Warner more valuable cable brands in addition to Time Warner’s successful HBO premium network that came from the Time Inc. company. It also gave Warner Bros a new kid-friendly network in Cartoon Network, which is important once you remember that Warner-Amex’s cable networks including Nickelodeon were picked up by Viacom and made into its own powerhouse brand.

I believe without Turner’s library and lucrative cable brands, Warner Bros would not be as strong as it was for the years ahead even with mergers like AOL and AT&T that the company largely managed to survive through. That’s why it’s worrying that Skydance purchased these assets alongside Paramount. Will brands like Cartoon Network and TNT be treated properly even when Nickelodeon and CBS were already under Skydance’s watch? We will have to wait and see.

For any you think are stupid or illogical, i'll explain myself in the comments.