Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) certainly compete for the dubious honour of the ugliest kids in the family of media giants. Both badly need a suitor, and Paramount made it to the altar first.

But, you know, marry in haste and all that. Skydance was the only serious caller and so became the partner/owner. But it was always about convenience and optics, a case of a middleweight (at best) buddying up with a has-been heavyweight hoping that a new super heavyweight champion would emerge. A fighter that could go toe-to-toe with Disney or Comcast or anyone else.

No chance. What new brands were brought? What unbeatable content pipeline? What fabulous new distribution network? None. Even compared to WBD, Paramount’s brands look lacklustre and legacy.

And that’s why Paramount has been quite desperate to crash the Netflix-WBD deal. A classic case of doubling down on a dodgy bet. The market isn’t convinced and nor is the target. Just as well then that someone’s dad can come up with the odd $40 billion guarantee.

If enough money is put on the table maybe WBD holders will, in the end, take the cash rather than a stake in the future with Netflix. Netflix is very successful, it deserves – if it really wants to – to have a crack at running and converting old-style assets; WBD does have some gems such as HBO. But its main attraction is that it is the last available option – once WBD has changed hands that’s the last of the major majors that will come into play: Zaslav has played that card to perfection.

But even Netflix must be wondering why it is bothering. Comcast recently spun off a package of its old-style network assets into a company called Versant. Veteran CEO Mark Lazarus said all the expected stuff: “As a standalone company, we enter the market with the scale, strategy and leadership to grow and evolve our business model.” As soon as the stock opened, it promptly fell 15 per cent.

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Tags: netflix, paramount, WBD