2026 media predictions from 16 anonymous executives

It’s time for everyone’s favorite holiday tradition — CNBC’s annual anonymous media executive predictions!

CNBC spoke with 16 of the most powerful and influential executives in U.S. media, sports and entertainment, who all offered a prediction for the year ahead, under the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely and make bold bets.

This year, we break the forecasts into three categories: M&A predictions, sports predictions and miscellaneous. Before we begin, a few shoutouts from last year’s list. (You can find the full slate here.)

One executive predicted Comcast would acquire the studio and streaming assets of Warner Bros. Discovery and merge them with NBCUniversal. Close! Comcast did bid on those assets, but WBD ultimately chose an offer from Netflix. It’s now facing a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance. More on that to come in this year’s predictions, as you’d imagine.

Another executive predicted 2025 would see several TV broadcast mergers, and that’s sort of been the case — Tegna and Nexstar announced a deal, and Sinclair has made a thus far unsuccessful hostile bid to acquire E.W. Scripps.

Yet another guessed a big tech company would acquire videogame maker Electronic Arts. Not bad. The buyer wasn’t big tech, but EA did sell to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and private equity firm Silver Lake.

And one executive last year pretty much nailed it. They said the sports streaming service Venu would never launch (it didn’t), and that Fox would license its sports content to Disney’s ESPN (Fox did launch a bundle with ESPN for $39.99 per month that combines the two companies’ sports programming for those that stream).

Without further ado, here’s this year’s list:

Now we’re getting bold! This executive predicted that while Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts loves the media business and wanted to own and control a combined NBCU-WBD, he’ll have to accept that with Warner Bros. out of the picture, there’s simply no deal left for him. This executive said Apple both wants and needs to bulk up in media to stay relevant, and NBCU is the best prize available.

Frankly, it’s just nice to hear an Apple M&A prediction that’s not Disney.

Executive 3: Amazon or YouTube will buy NBCUniversal assets

Along similar lines, this executive said WBD will set a new, higher EBITDA multiple for media assets. That could lead Roberts to sell NBCU now — or at least, Peacock and Universal, the streaming and studio assets of NBCU. This executive hedged their prediction, though, and said the theme parks may or may not be part of a sale.

To head off potential antitrust questions, this executive hypothesized that a tech company might be allowed to run a broadcast network like NBC if NBC’s owned-and-operated stations were sold separately.

Executive 4: Paramount will lose WBD, divest CBS, buy NBCUniversal

Yes, a deal involving NBCU was quite popular this round. If Paramount doesn’t end up with WBD, it needs a backup plan to gain scale. NBCUniversal and Peacock would be a nice consolation prize, but regulators almost certainly wouldn’t allow Paramount to own both CBS and NBC. So, this executive guessed Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison will hive off CBS (more on CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss later) and keep NBC to entice Roberts to sell.

Executive 5: Comcast will buy Roku

Not so fast on selling NBCU, said this executive. Comcast still has another move to make. Roku has a market capitalization of about $16 billion. It’s a move Roberts can make that both gets Comcast into national video distribution while also adding Roku’s media assets to NBCU.

Not the boldest prediction on the list, but perhaps the best bet at coming to fruition. The NCAA is considering upping the number of men’s teams in the tourney from 68 to 76. The CFP may expand from 12 to 16 teams — or perhaps even more. This executive thinks it will happen in 2026.

Executive 8: The NFL will ink new, extended deals with its current media partners

Lots of ink has been spilled on the competitive threats of YouTube and Netflix to the traditional media companies. The epitome of that threat is taking live NFL games away from the broadcasters and ESPN.

This executive predicted the NFL will make sure this doesn’t happen by extending contracts with CBS, NBC, ABC/ESPN and Fox in 2026. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in September he’s open to starting those renewal talks as soon as next year.

Executive 9: Amazon will acquire a new NFL international package

Goodell has talked about expanding the league’s international games to 16 per season involving all 32 teams. This executive estimated the league will shop this package of games next year to one buyer, and Amazon Prime Video will supplement its Thursday Night Football package with a Sunday package of games abroad.

Executive 10: The NFL’s acceleration of media rights talks will push MLB and NHL to also pull forward their talks to 2026

This executive figured there’s only so much money to go around for the big media companies. Instead of waiting for the NFL to do its deal in 2026 and having to live off what’s left over, it may be a better strategic move for the MLB and NHL to stay ahead of the NFL to maximize media rights value.

Executive 11: Traditional media companies will make severe cuts to their linear network entertainment spending to afford holding on to the NFL and other sports

It’s the same logic here in terms of the limitation of media budgets. This executive predicted media companies will be forced to slash their non-sports budgets to afford a massive increase coming from the NFL — and the fallout will begin in 2026.

Executive 12: Both the WNBA and MLB will announce lockouts

The WNBA’s collective bargaining negotiations are already underway with a new deadline of Jan. 9. The Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association Executive Director Terri Carmichael Jackson told CNBC this week she’s been frustrated with the pace of discussions.

MLB’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2026. This executive predicted both leagues will have lockouts as owners and players can’t agree on new CBAs in time.

You knew there’d be a Disney CEO prediction on the list. Disney is supposed to name Iger’s successor in early 2026. Josh D’Amaro runs the parks and resorts division and is considered to be one of two favorites, along with co-chair of Disney Entertainment, Dana Walden.

Executive 14: Marjorie Taylor Greene becomes a member of “The View”

Hey, some of these are out of the box! Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced in November that she would resign from Congress effective Jan. 5. Her next stop could be ABC’s daytime talk show “The View,” according to this executive.

Executive 15: Bari Weiss will become the anchor of her own new eponymous CBS News program

CBS News’ Weiss, named editor-in-chief in October, is already moderating town halls on the network and has promised “many more conversations like this in the weeks and months ahead.” This executive predicted Weiss will use this as a launch pad for her own hosted show.

Executive 16: “In 2026, Hollywood is going to stage a mass boycott of the ‘digital trades’ after discovering they are irrelevant, inane and frequently inaccurate.”

I’m including this one, word for word, so the “digital trades” (Puck, The Ankler, etc.) will have something to speculate about in their next newsletters and podcast episodes. Which firebrand Hollywood executive made this brash prediction? Free content, from me to you. Now that’s a Christmas gift!

Happy holidays!

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.