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Back in December, we argued here that The CW was headed toward perhaps the strangest ownership arrangement in American broadcasting. Nexstar controlled the network, while Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery still held minority interests. Nexstar was pursuing Tegna, and Paramount Skydance was pursuing WBD — raising the possibility that the owner of CBS could simultaneously retain a stake in one of its smaller broadcast competitors.
Nine months later, nearly every piece of that chessboard has moved. Yet instead of becoming more convoluted, The CW’s future is beginning to look surprisingly ... coherent.
The network increasingly appears to be evolving into something other than a conventional fifth broadcaster trying to compete directly with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. It is becoming a strategic programming and distribution asset inside Nexstar’s much larger local-TV operation — valuable not only for what it airs, but for the leverage, optionality and reach it gives its owner.
The Ownership Puzzle Is Solving Itself
Paramount’s proposed acquisition of WBD moved materially closer to completion this week after the company reached settlements with the 12 states and the Writers Guild of America that had sued to block the transaction. The agreement still requires judicial approval, and the merger has not yet closed, but one of its biggest remaining legal obstacles has been removed.
That might seem to recreate the conflict envisioned in December: CBS and WBD under one roof while retaining an interest in The CW. Meanwhile, Nexstar has steadily been simplifying that ownership structure.
Its original 2022 stake was 75%, but that had already grown to 79.7% by last fall, reached 80.8% at year-end and stood at 81.1% as of June 30. On August 4, one unidentified minority owner exercised its contractual right to put its remaining interest back to Nexstar, although Nexstar retains a one-year deferral right. The company currently estimates the redemption value of all remaining non-controlling CW interests at roughly $110 million.
The direction is increasingly clear even if the timing is not: The CW is moving toward becoming entirely, or nearly entirely, a Nexstar property.
A Paramount-WBD combination therefore may ultimately simplify the old partnership rather than complicate it. The merged company could remain involved as a supplier — licensing library titles, second windows or individual projects — without needing to remain a meaningful owner of the network itself.
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