In 2026, in spite of all the restructurings, divestsments and refocuses (including selling their Warner Bros. Games division to Bandai Namco Entertainment (though NetherRealm Studios and their Mortal Kombat and Injustice IPs are sold to Take-Two Interactive via 2K Games)), Warner Bros Discovery has been unable to pay down its mounting debts so they sell themselves to Sony (who just a few years ago had purchased Crunchyroll from their predecessor WarnerMedia). Sony is overall in a much more financially stable state compared to Warner Bros Discovery. Furthermore, having Warner's much larger and richer library of IPs can help synergize with selling more Sony Bravia TVs because of their integrated Core streaming service (this was a similar factor into why Disney brought 21st Century-Fox, as their larger library would help expand their upcoming Disney+ service and thus give people more reason to sub to it). So what will happen with this merged company going forward?
Warner Bros Pictures gets merged into Columbia Pictures to form Warner Bros Columbia (kind of like how Twentieth Century Fox was the merger between Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film). Meanwhile New Line Cinema gets merged into TriStar Pictures to form New Line TriStar.
Warner Bros. Television Group is merged into Sony Pictures Television Group
Warner Home Video Japan's assets get merged into Sony Music Entertainment Japan (such as their anime libary like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Food Wars being transferred to Aniplex). Along the way Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan itself is merged into Sony Music Entertainment Japan as part of a centralization of Sony's Japanese media assets. As part of this merger, Sony Music Entertainment Japan is renamed to Sony Entertainment Japan and its music assets are transferred to a new Sony Music Entertainment Japan.
Sony relocates its operations from the ex-MGM/Lorimar lot in Culver City to the larger Warner Bros lot in Burbank. It's unknown what will become of this now-vacated lot.
Warner Bros Home Entertainment is merged into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Warner Bros Animation is merged into Sony Pictures Animation.
Otter Media is dissolved as Rooster Teeth is transferred to Crunchyroll.
As Sony Pictures Entertainment (and also Sony Music Entertainment Japan) has put a lot of eggs into the Crunchyroll basket, Sony decides to expend Crunchyroll into not only a streaming service and licensor but a full-fledged production company, with assets of Cartoon Network (and related companies like Boomerang, Adult Swim, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe and Williams Street), Rooster Teeth and DC Comics getting merged into Crunchyroll. Rooster Teeth itself is split and what remains of it is now a multi-channel network akin to the former Curse and Machinima.
Crunchyroll Services: The Crunchyroll Streaming service and cable channels such as Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Cartoonito, Adult Swim and Crunchyroll Channel. What remains of Rooster Teeth after its breaking up are now here.
Crunchyroll Entertainment: The licensing and distribution portion. This also includes the libraries from the Cartoon Network group, DC Comics and Rooster Teeth.
Crunchyroll Productions: Where companies like Rooster Teeth Studios and Rooster Teeth Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, DC Comics (and DC Studios), Williams Street and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe are in.
Crunchyroll Games: This is where Rooster Teeth Games and Cartoon Network Games get transferred to.
The Warner Bros name is replaced by the Sony Pictures name beyond the newly-formed Warner Bros Columbia (i.e. Warner Bros. International Television Production becomes Sony Pictures International Television Production).
As Sony now owns DC Comics movies, Disney gets much more defensive of their Marvel IPs.
Channels
Sony buys Hasbro's 40% stake in Discovery Family and phases out its programming to relaunch it as Crunchyroll Channel. Additionally, all 24/7 Adult Swim Channels (such as Adult Swim Latin America and the Corus-owned Adult Swim Canada), Toonami Africa and Warner TV Next become the Latin American, African and French feeds for Crunchyroll Channel respectively.
Tooncast is rebranded to Boomerang (marking the return of Boomerang to Latin America after being replaced by Cartoonito in 2021) and transferred to Crunchyroll Services.
TBS is renamed to Sony Channel
Warner TV
All but what's listed below are rebranded to Sony Channel
As Latin America has both Sony Channel and Warner TV, Warner TV Latin America's programming is transferred to Sony Channel and is relaunched as Sony Comedy
The German Warner TV channels (Warner TV Comedy, Warner TV Film, Warner TV Serie) become Sony Comedy, Sony Movies and Sony Channel respectively.
As discussed above Warner TV Next becomes Crunchyroll Channel France.
TNT-branded channels
TNT (US) and TNT Africa are renamed to AXN (US) and AXN Africa respectively.
In the UK, TNT Sports, TNT Sport 4 and TNT Sports Box Office become Sony Sports, Sony Sports 4 and Sony Sports Box Office respectively.
TNT Latin America consolidated into AXN Latin America. Similar to Lifetime (an A+E Networks Channel), TNT is relaunched as Vice TV Latin America. TNT Series is rebranded to TruTV following Adult Swim Latin America's conversion to Crunchyroll Channel Latin America (marking the return of TruTV to Latin America and also the introduction of TruTV to Brazil), TNT Novelas is rebranded to Sony Novelas and TNT Sports is rebranded to Sony Sports.
AXN-branded channels
Portugal: AXN White is rebranded to Sony Channel. AXN Movies is rebranded to Sony Movies
Spain: AXN Movies is rebranded to Sony Movies.
Sony Movies (US) and Sony Cine (US) are discontinued as they are absorbed into HBO and HBO Latino respectively.
Max is integrated into the Sony Pictures Core service. Sony Pictures Core is rebranded to just Core.
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Warner Bros Pictures gets merged into Columbia Pictures to form Warner Bros Columbia (kind of like how Twentieth Century Fox was the merger between Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film). Meanwhile New Line Cinema gets merged into TriStar Pictures to form New Line TriStar.
Warner Bros. Television Group is merged into Sony Pictures Television Group
Warner Home Video Japan's assets get merged into Sony Music Entertainment Japan (such as their anime libary like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Food Wars being transferred to Aniplex). Along the way Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan itself is merged into Sony Music Entertainment Japan as part of a centralization of Sony's Japanese media assets. As part of this merger, Sony Music Entertainment Japan is renamed to Sony Entertainment Japan and its music assets are transferred to a new Sony Music Entertainment Japan.
Sony relocates its operations from the ex-MGM/Lorimar lot in Culver City to the larger Warner Bros lot in Burbank. It's unknown what will become of this now-vacated lot.
Warner Bros Home Entertainment is merged into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Warner Bros Animation is merged into Sony Pictures Animation.
Otter Media is dissolved as Rooster Teeth is transferred to Crunchyroll.
As Sony Pictures Entertainment (and also Sony Music Entertainment Japan) has put a lot of eggs into the Crunchyroll basket, Sony decides to expend Crunchyroll into not only a streaming service and licensor but a full-fledged production company, with assets of Cartoon Network (and related companies like Boomerang, Adult Swim, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe and Williams Street), Rooster Teeth and DC Comics getting merged into Crunchyroll. Rooster Teeth itself is split and what remains of it is now a multi-channel network akin to the former Curse and Machinima.
Crunchyroll Services: The Crunchyroll Streaming service and cable channels such as Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Cartoonito, Adult Swim and Crunchyroll Channel. What remains of Rooster Teeth after its breaking up are now here.
Crunchyroll Entertainment: The licensing and distribution portion. This also includes the libraries from the Cartoon Network group, DC Comics and Rooster Teeth.
Crunchyroll Productions: Where companies like Rooster Teeth Studios and Rooster Teeth Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, DC Comics (and DC Studios), Williams Street and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe are in.
Crunchyroll Games: This is where Rooster Teeth Games and Cartoon Network Games get transferred to.
The Warner Bros name is replaced by the Sony Pictures name beyond the newly-formed Warner Bros Columbia (i.e. Warner Bros. International Television Production becomes Sony Pictures International Television Production).
As Sony now owns DC Comics movies, Disney gets much more defensive of their Marvel IPs.
Channels
Sony buys Hasbro's 40% stake in Discovery Family and phases out its programming to relaunch it as Crunchyroll Channel. Additionally, all 24/7 Adult Swim Channels (such as Adult Swim Latin America and the Corus-owned Adult Swim Canada), Toonami Africa and Warner TV Next become the Latin American, African and French feeds for Crunchyroll Channel respectively.
Tooncast is rebranded to Boomerang (marking the return of Boomerang to Latin America after being replaced by Cartoonito in 2021) and transferred to Crunchyroll Services.
TBS is renamed to Sony Channel
Warner TV
All but what's listed below are rebranded to Sony Channel
As Latin America has both Sony Channel and Warner TV, Warner TV Latin America's programming is transferred to Sony Channel and is relaunched as Sony Comedy
The German Warner TV channels (Warner TV Comedy, Warner TV Film, Warner TV Serie) become Sony Comedy, Sony Movies and Sony Channel respectively.
As discussed above Warner TV Next becomes Crunchyroll Channel France.
TNT-branded channels
TNT (US) and TNT Africa are renamed to AXN (US) and AXN Africa respectively.
In the UK, TNT Sports, TNT Sport 4 and TNT Sports Box Office become Sony Sports, Sony Sports 4 and Sony Sports Box Office respectively.
TNT Latin America consolidated into AXN Latin America. Similar to Lifetime (an A+E Networks Channel), TNT is relaunched as Vice TV Latin America. TNT Series is rebranded to TruTV following Adult Swim Latin America's conversion to Crunchyroll Channel Latin America (marking the return of TruTV to Latin America and also the introduction of TruTV to Brazil), TNT Novelas is rebranded to Sony Novelas and TNT Sports is rebranded to Sony Sports.
AXN-branded channels
Portugal: AXN White is rebranded to Sony Channel. AXN Movies is rebranded to Sony Movies
Spain: AXN Movies is rebranded to Sony Movies.
Sony Movies (US) and Sony Cine (US) are discontinued as they are absorbed into HBO and HBO Latino respectively.
Max is integrated into the Sony Pictures Core service. Sony Pictures Core is rebranded to just Core.
Src
