Nexstar to Acquire 75% Stake in the CW Network From Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNexstar Media Group revealed Monday it is set acquire a 75% majority stake in the CW Network from Paramount Global and Warner Bros.

Discovery, more than six months after first beginning negotiations for the deal.Warner Bros. Discovery (formed through the recent merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery) and Paramount (rebranded from ViacomCBS earlier this year) have co-owned the network since early 2006, when the WB and UPN were merged after nearly a dozen years on the air into a single entity, so named for the “C” in CBS and “W” in Warner Bros.

Both Paramount and WBD will each retain a 12.5% ownership in the CW and continue to produce content for the broadcaster upon close of the sale, which Nexstar expects will happen during the current third quarter.

The CW has been instrumental in Warner Bros.’ efforts to bring its DC Comics characters to life for a new generation with a host of superhero and fantasy content such as “The Flash,” “Arrow,” “Supergirl,” “Batwoman,” “Black Lightening” and “Superman and Lois.”The network, headed by chairman Mark Pedowitz, who will remain the CW’s chairman and CEO with “responsibility for day-to-day operations” upon the expected close of the Nexstar deal, has also made strides in expanding into digital content and in managing the delicate balancing act of setting a content strategy that worked for the studio parent companies and for the network’s affiliate stations.