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Afternoon Edition

December 17, 2025

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Warner Bros. Discovery’s board unanimously votes to reject Paramount’s hostile takeover bid, backing its Netflix deal and accusing the David Ellison–led offer of lacking real financial support.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]] and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

TNT Sports Parent Rejects $108B Paramount Bid, Attacks Ellisons [[link removed]]

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TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has delivered a blunt response to the acquisition offer from Paramount [[link removed]]: no thanks.

WBD said early Wednesday that its board has unanimously voted to reject the hostile bid [[link removed]] that Paramount tendered last week, and is urging its shareholders not to participate in the tender offer.

The CBS Sports parent company had offered to buy all of WBD—including the sports and linear television assets—in a deal with an enterprise value of $108.4 billion.

In a letter to shareholders [[link removed]], WBD said that the Paramount bid was “inferior” to a deal that it has already struck with Netflix [[link removed]] for WBD’s studios and streaming business, one that it continues to recommend and is worth $82.7 billion.

“The Paramount offer provides inadequate value and imposes numerous, significant risks and costs on WBD,” the company said in the shareholder letter.

WBD, however, went much further in detailing the perceived defects in the offer from Paramount and its chair and CEO, David Ellison. WBD called the Paramount offer “illusory,” and also attacked the financial backing that Ellison said he has amassed from a group that includes his billionaire father Larry, several Gulf sovereign wealth funds, and RedBird Capital Partners.

“Paramount has consistently misled WBD shareholders that its proposed transaction has a ‘full backstop’ from the Ellison family. It does not, and never did,” WBD’s letter continues.

Affinity Partners, the investment company run by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, has already backed out of its involvement in the Ellison bid. “The dynamics of the investment have changed significantly since we initially became involved in October,” the firm said. The firm did insist, though, that “we continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer.”

Next Steps

Ellison and Paramount will now need to decide whether they want to raise their offer, previously an all-cash tender for $30 per WBD share. Ellison has already signaled a willingness to go higher and had earlier told WBD CEO David Zaslav by text that its bid was not “best and final.”

Netflix, meanwhile, also sent a separate letter to WBD shareholders Wednesday, saying that its WBD pact is “the right deal, with the right partner, at the right time.”

“Our deal structure is clean and certain, with committed debt financing from leading institutions,” wrote Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. “There are no contingencies, no foreign sovereign wealth funds, and no stock collateral or personal loans.”

Fourth Bid

A regulatory filing Wednesday from WBD also mentioned a fourth offer for the company during prior bidding, adding to the known entries from Netflix, Paramount, and NBC Sports parent company Comcast. That additional unnamed entrant was an “American media company,” and surprisingly, was interested primarily in WBD’s linear assets, unlike the other bids.

WBD ultimately didn’t seriously pursue the offer, though.

If WBD ultimately proceeds with the Netflix deal, it would also continue with a planned split of the company [[link removed]] that will create Discovery Global, a new holding entity that would house TNT Sports [[link removed]].

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, in which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the primary investor in Front Office Sports.

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ACC Plans Tiebreaker Changes for 2026 After CFP Near-Miss [[link removed]]

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The ACC is planning to change its football conference championship game tiebreaker rules as it transitions to a nine-game league schedule in 2026.

The move was revealed Tuesday as the ACC announced teams’ 2026 conference opponents, and comes after the current tiebreaker system nearly kept the ACC out [[link removed]] of the College Football Playoff this season.

While Miami ultimately received the final at-large bid [[link removed]] from the CFP selection committee and will play at Texas A&M on Saturday, they were kept out of the ACC championship game after losing a tiebreaker to Duke, who had an identical 6–2 record in conference games but a 7–5 overall record, compared to 10–2 for the Hurricanes.

Duke beat Virginia in the ACC title game but ended the season unranked, leading to two automatic CFP bids for Group of 6 teams, Tulane and James Madison.

The ACC did not say what the new tiebreaker policy would be, only that it would be “updated and announced ahead of the 2026 season.” One new element could be factoring in CFP rankings after head-to-head, as the G6 American Conference does. Miami was the ACC’s highest-ranked team at No. 12 entering conference championship weekend.

Math Problems

The ACC’s move from eight to nine conference games was initially announced in September [[link removed]], but this week it was revealed that 2026 would be a “transition” year with only 12 of the league’s 17 teams playing nine conference games.

The other five—Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina—will play eight conference games and at least two games against Power 4 opponents “due to contractual obligations and scheduling balance.”

Beginning in 2027, 16 teams per season will play nine conference games, and one team each year will play just eight, because not all 17 teams can play exactly nine league games. All teams will be required to play a 10th game against another Power 4 opponent, with the team that’s playing eight conference games required to play two.

The SEC is also expanding from eight to nine conference games [[link removed]] per season in 2026.

World Cup Prize Pool Hits $727M, but Angry Fans Paying a Steeper Price [[link removed]]

Jessica Alcheh-Imagn Images

FIFA finalized its prize pool for the 2026 World Cup and will award a record $727 million, but that increase from 2022 remains far less than the event’s hike in ticket costs.

Following a meeting of FIFA’s council in Qatar this week, the global governing body ratified a payout structure that is an event record and will represent a 50% boost from the 2022 World Cup. The prize pool includes:

Winner: $50 million 2nd place: $33 million 3rd place: $29 million 4th place: $27 million 5th through 8th place: $19 million each 9th through 16th place: $15 million each 17th through 32nd place: $11 million each 33rd through 48th place: $9 million each

In addition, FIFA will also distribute $1.5 million to each of the 48 teams and their Participating Member Associations (PMAs) to cover preparation and travel costs, adding $72 million in total payouts to the $655 million in competition-based awards.

“The FIFA World Cup 2026 will also be groundbreaking in terms of its financial contribution to the global football community,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino in a statement.

Sticker Shock

Despite the hefty boost in payouts to national teams and their PMA, that planned outlay is still just a fraction of the increased costs [[link removed]] that fans will incur to watch the World Cup in person.

Ticket costs have roughly quintupled compared to the 2022 tournament in Qatar, and Football Supporters Europe has estimated that it could cost $6,900 for a single fan to follow their team from the group stage through to the final. Scotland, in thrall over its first World Cup berth since 1998, had to go so far as to warn fans not to incur excessive debt to support the club [[link removed]].

The hefty increases have sparked global outrage, forcing FIFA this week to implement a new, $60 price tier [[link removed]] for all matches that will be available on a rather limited basis. That gesture is not enough, several fan groups have already said, and pointed further to the prize pool.

“The record prize fund demonstrates there is no shortage of money associated with the World Cup,” Football Supporters’ Association chair Tom Greatrex said Wednesday. “More teams, bigger stadia, greater number of commercial partners—which all underlines that there is no need to charge extortionate ticket prices to the supporters who bring the vibrancy.”

Despite all of that, FIFA said this week it has received more than 20 million ticket requests for the World Cup during an ongoing, lottery-based phase of its ticketing. That figure is quadruple the level from the end of last week, and adds to the nearly 2 million tickets sold during the two prior phases.

SPONSORED BY AT&T BUSINESS

The WNBA and WNBPA agreed to a second extension of their current collective bargaining agreement just minutes before the first extension expired Sunday night. The CBA now runs through Jan. 9, 2026. [[link removed]]

The league initially proposed a 21-day extension, while the union countered with six weeks on Nov. 30, the day the original CBA was set to expire, a source told Front Office Sports. Both sides ultimately agreed to extend the agreement by nearly six weeks. As with the previous extension, either party can opt out with 48 hours’ notice.

Despite meeting consistently over the past month— including through the holiday weekend [[link removed]]—the league and union have yet to make sufficient progress to ratify a new CBA.

Check out the women’s sports content hub [[link removed]], presented by AT&T, to read the full story [[link removed]] and stay up to date on all things women’s sports.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY Why Barstool Moved ‘Pardon My Take’ to Netflix

FOS illustration

Barstool has made the decision to move three of its largest podcasts, including Pardon My Take, off YouTube and exclusively to Netflix. Jack Settleman, founder of Snapback Sports, joins Baker Machado to break down why this makes sense from a business perspective, why it hurts from a fan perspective, and what the deal tells us about the direction of sports media.

Plus, NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that the league will make a decision about expansion in 2026, with Las Vegas and Seattle as the top markets under consideration at the moment. FOS reporters Colin Salao and Alex Schiffer talk through the NBA’s future plans, including the upcoming launch of its European league. They also discuss Chris Paul’s Clippers exit, Terry Rozier’s status, and the Knicks winning the NBA Cup.

Also, the ACC is changing its schedule and tiebreaker criteria after a controversial end to the regular season. FOS newsletter writer David Rumsey explains.

Watch the full episode here. [[link removed]]

STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Down

Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Eagles ⬆ If the defending Super Bowl champions win on Sunday or the Cowboys lose, that will clinch a repeat NFC East division title for Philadelphia, something no team in that division has done for 20 years. Despite the ongoing dominance of the Eagles, including seven playoff berths in the last eight years, there hasn’t been a back-to-back winner of the NFC East since Philadelphia did it from 2001 to 2004.

Netflix ⬆ Despite sharply diminished appeal [[link removed]] for a scheduled Christmas doubleheader, the streaming giant said that hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg will headline the halftime show for the late-afternoon holiday game between the Lions and Vikings. A planned “Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Party” will also have to-be-announced special guests. Snoop Dogg was part of the Super Bowl LVI halftime show four seasons ago in Los Angeles.

Grayson Wood ⬆ The amateur golfer, a junior at Georgia, won [[link removed]] the 2025 White Sands Bahamas Men’s Invitational, earning an exemption into a 2026 PGA Tour event. Wood will be able to choose to play in the Puerto Rico Open or Myrtle Beach Classic; runner-up Carson Bertagnole, a freshman at North Carolina, will receive the other exemption.

Tua Tagovailoa ⬇ The Dolphins are benching their quarterback in favor of rookie Quinn Ewers, a seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft [[link removed]], who will start Sunday’s game against the Bengals. Tagovailoa, the No. 5 pick in 2020, is due a guaranteed $54 million in 2026. Miami (6–8) was eliminated from playoff contention after Monday’s loss to the Steelers.

Editors’ Picks Three Barstool Podcasts Moving Exclusively to Netflix [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]Video versions of three Barstool podcasts will be on Netflix in 2026. Private Equity Dives Further Into Minor League Baseball [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]Seven MiLB teams have changed hands in the last week. Heat Still in Limbo With Terry Rozier: ‘No Obvious Solution’ [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]Terry Rozier was arrested in October in a gambling case. DAILY TRIVIA Factle Sports

Can you list the last five teams to win a LaLiga title (no duplicates)?

PLAY NOW [[link removed]]

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