Sun Valley Sees Moguls & Governors Mingle, With Strategy, Succession & Politics In Play

July in full swing sees top media executives and an impressive political cohort gathered at a storied mountain resort to hike, chat and whitewater raft. The elixir of relaxed proximity distilled in Sun Valley’s rustic woods is credited with hatching a number of consequential deals over the decades.

But this year could one deal be undone? It’s unlikely, but Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount, and Barry Diller, who might like to, are both present and Par’s recent merger agreement with Skydance has a 45-day window for other interested buyers to jump in.

Skydance CEO David Ellison is not at Sun Valley but quite likely will be next year as a major studio owner-operator.

With the media and entertainment industry continuing to undergo unprecedented change, streaming bundles, sports rights, the overall state of film, TV and tech, as well as the current political climate are in the mix at the conference, which has been hosted annually since 1983 by boutique investment bank Allen & Co. Open AI co-founder Sam Altman is attending, with Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy. Patriarch Rupert Murdoch and son Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox, join Disney chief Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav for an agenda of talks, meetups and well-tended nature. Execs from NBCUniversal parent Comcast are full up with the Summer Olympics in Paris starting later this month and it wasn’t immediately clear who from the company is attending.

Moguls and tech titans began arriving yesterday, private planes crowding the small Idaho town’s tiny airport.

Iger, who is set to exit Disney at the end of 2026, has a cotillion with Dana Walden, Alan Bergman and Josh D’Amaro, as well as CFO Hugh Johnston. He wants to get succession right this time after his previous CEO pick, Bob Chapek, bellyflopped and was ejected, leading to Iger’s second turn at the helm. The search is underway and he is preparing for life after Disney, looking, with his wife Willow Bay, to make a big investment in women’s pro soccer team Angel City FS.  

Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment with Bergman, oversees the company’s full portfolio of entertainment media, news and content businesses globally, including streaming. Bergman leads film, both theatrical and streaming releases, including Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures. D’Amaro runs Disney Experiences led by theme parks and resorts.

Sun Valley could be viewed as a bit of succession planning as the three interact with other attendees.

The executive crowd and wealthy political donors will be mingling with some of the nation’s most dynamic Democratic governors including Wisconsin’s Gretchen Whitmer and Maryland’s Wes Moore Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was invited but is remaining in Harrisburg for ongoing budget negotiations. All have doubled down on support for President Biden amid calls for him to step away as a presidential candidate following that disastrous debate performance two weeks ago. Biden says he won’t, and is currently hosting a celebration of NATOs 75^th birthday in Washington, D.C.

Whitmer, who was the target of an (unsuccessful) kidnapping plot, has been out and about this week defending Biden and talking about her new book, True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between.

Shari Redstone, meanwhile, may be turning the page on Allen & Co. after this year as she prepares to exit the biz. She’s explored potential deals and partnerships for several years at the event but arrived at Sun Valley 2024 having literally just clinched Paramount’s sale to Skydance. It’s unlikely she’d ditch Ellison after so many months spent tinkering with a combination that she favors for a combination of reasons. But Paramount is a publicly traded company and under the terms of the agreement anyone can step up in the next month and a half.

Sun Valley sports a few other former or potential suitors. Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Apollo, was looking at Paramount’s books but has retreated for now amid regulatory complications and Skydance’s ascendance. “There might have been other scenarios that could have played out in other ways, but this seems to be currently the scenario for the moment,” SPE chief Tom Rothman told Deadline this week. Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO of SPE parent Sony Corp., which also spans music, games and electronics, will be in Sun Valley with Hiroki Totoki, the giant company’s COO and CFO.

Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav, who also talked with Redstone about a possible combination, would not miss Sun Valley where, in recent years, he’s speculated on deals to come as WBD gets its financial house in order post-merger.

Merger mania overall has been dampened by challenges, or threat of them, from an extremely proactive FTC and federal regulators although that could change if the next administration is Republican. Deals that have percolated through Sun Valley run from Jeff Bezos’ acquisition of The Washington Post and AT&T’s Warner Media merger, to, back in the day, AOL buying Time Warner and Disney acquiring ABC.

Most pressing for Zaslav at the moment may be basketball with WBD seen likely to lose its longstanding rights deal with the NBA. Here’s a shot to charm the league’s Commissioner Adam Silver, also at the confab, into giving the company a few games.

A number of sports potentates will be making the Idaho scene, at a moment when tens of billions of dollars are changing hands in pursuit of ever-valuable rights. With the NBA is poised to announce a new set of rights deals, multiple reports in recent weeks have indicated Disney/ESPN has renewed its deal, with Amazon Prime Video and NBCU coming aboard as new rights holders. WBD’s Turner, which has carried NBA games since the 1980s, appears to be on the outside looking in, but its close relationship with the league and contractual right to match rival offers could keep it in the mix. Turner operates NBA.com and handles production for NBA TV, which could make it difficult for the league to cut ties. Talent and fans alike have also been howling about the potential end of TNT’s Inside the NBA, the most popular sports studio show in existence.  

Once NBA rights are finalized, the biggest remaining property will be the UFC. Disney took over the rights from Fox in 2018, paying $1.5 billion. The price tag is expected to climb significantly, given Disney’s deal came in 2018, before major streaming players Prime Video, Apple and Netflix started buying into live sports in a big way.

Streaming will be a major topic at the conference, as it is in everyday conversations throughout the industry. Partnerships and bundles have started to gain traction, with two recent examples being Warner Bros. Discovery’s package with Disney+ and Hulu as well as a sports bundle involving Fox, ESPN and WBD’s Turner. Those ventures are significant, but industry watchers and Wall Streeters are waiting for a bigger milestone to point the way to a more profitable tomorrow.

Paramount Global has loudly telegraphed its interest in forming a streaming partnership. The company’s current leadership has described “significant” inbound interest, with reports indicating WBD’s Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock as potential dance partners. Ellison has talked about improving the tech stack at Paramount with the aim of boosting Paramount+ but also has said joint ventures or partnerships would be considered, especially outside the U.S.

Dade Hayes and Dominic Patten contributed to this story