Three potential buyers emerge for AEW’s media partner Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery, the home of AEW programming, reportedly has three formal purchase bids. According to Deadline.com, the interested buyers are Comcast (parent of NBCU and home of WWE content on Peacock), Netflix (which also carries WWE programming), and Paramount, which doesn’t air wrestling but recently signed deals for UFC, PBR, and Zuffa Boxing through TKO.

Multiple sources told Deadline that non-binding bids for WBD were due Thursday, with a second round of final, binding offers to follow. WBD expects the sale process to wrap by late December, though regulatory approval would take at least a year.

Paramount is currently viewed as the frontrunner because it’s bidding for the entire company, including its weaker cable networks, while Comcast and Netflix are only targeting WBD’s studios and streaming assets.

While no further details on the bids were revealed, the New York Post reported that bids were submitted “with deal insiders predicting a winning offer that will likely fall far short of the $30 a share that CEO David Zaslav said he wanted for the media conglomerate.”