2024 saw crimped deal volumes as interest rates remained elevated and an unfavourable regulatory environment dumpened sentiment. But 2025 has " the recipe for all the stars to be aligned, according to Bart spiegel, partner of global entertainment and media deals at PwC.
" I really do expect it to be a perfect storm for M&A to accelerate in 2025 from a deal value and a deal volume perspective", spiegel said in an interview with yahoo finance.
He listed several catalysts for next year, including "significant dry powder on the sidelines", the expectation that interest rates will continue to move lower, and a looser regulatory environment from the incoming Trump administration.
Plus, "this is not a steady state industry" he said, referencing the "constantly changing" media landscape. "You've got players that really do want to make moves.
Those moves have already begun to materialise. Late in 2024, Comcast (CMCSA) said it would spin off most of its cable properties into a new company after teasing the possibility just a few weeks prior. At the time Comcast said it wanted to " play offense in order to combat increased cord cutting.
Wall Street analysts have said Comcast spun-off company could acquire other beaten-down cable properties, describing it as a positive development for competitors exposed to traditional networks, like Warner Bros. Discovery(WBD).
To that point, shortly after Comcast's announcement, WBD also said it would undergo a corporate restructuring to separate it's legacy networks including CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and the Ford Network, from growth drivers like studies and its streaming platform Max. " it appears we are closer to the tipping point given the combination of secular and cyclical challenges.