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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! It’s the third annual anonymous media and entertainment executive predictions list!

In honor of the 12 days of Christmas, I asked 12 past and current executives at the world’s biggest media and entertainment companies for one industry-shaking prediction for 2024. And then I asked one more because this is the holiday season, and I was feeling generous. A baker’s dozen! Actually, I asked a few more, but some overlapped.

Quite a few of last year’s predictions were accurate. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger did extend his contract. Christine McCarthy stepped down as Disney’s chief financial officer. Paramount Global hasn’t been sold, but controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is now in talks to sell National Amusements. Google’s YouTube acquired the National Football League’s “Sunday Ticket” package.

Some weren’t as good. The media industry didn’t bounce back from recession as well as one executive hoped. Netflix didn’t merge with another company. Apple didn’t ban TikTok from its app store.

Alas, hope springs eternal with a new year.

Executive 1: Comcast will spin off NBCUniversal and merge it with Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery is approaching the two-year anniversary of its 2022 merger, when Discovery combined with WarnerMedia. That deadline is important for Reverse Morris Trust tax reasons. Without getting into the boring details, the important part is Warner Bros. Discovery can do another significant deal two years after the close of Discovery and WarnerMedia.

One executive targeted NBCUniversal as the most likely acquirer of Warner Bros. Discovery. This executive predicted Comcast CEO Brian Roberts would spin off NBCUniversal so that the new company would trade separately. But, Comcast (and Roberts) would keep a controlling stake of the ownership of the new entity.

A second executive suggested a more expansive scenario. Comcast will keep its theme parks business but sell the rest of the company in exchange for WBD common shares. Comcast will get a premium for the remainder of NBCUniversal in exchange for Roberts giving up his voting shares. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav runs the combined company, with NBCUniversal film chief Donna Langley staying on to run an expanded studio

Warner Bros. Discovery and rival Paramount Global are in early merger talks, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish met Tuesday to discuss the contours of a possible deal, said the sources, who declined to be named since the talks are private. The discussions are preliminary, and a deal may not materialize.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount declined to comment.

The news comes as speculation about Paramount’s future heats up. Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is reportedly eager to make a deal. Redstone controls Paramount through her company National Amusements. Recently, Redstone held talks with David Ellison’s Skydance, which is backed by Gerry Cardinale’s investment firm RedBird, according to people familiar with the matter.

Paramount, whose assets include its namesake movie studio as well as broadcast network CBS, is carrying a hefty debt load, as well.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery, the result of a merger between Warner Media and Discovery, has been slashing costs and attacking its debt levels under Zaslav. The company has since said its streaming business has become profitable while other streamers, outside of leader Netflix, try to reverse losses.

Last month, Zaslav and Liberty Media’s John Malone, a Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder and board member, appeared to indicate that the company was preparing to become a buyer within the next year or two. The broader media industry is widely considered ripe for consolidation. Media executives are worried, however, that President Joe Biden’s administration could be hostile to a big media merger.

Warner Bros. Discovery is approaching the two-year anniversary of its 2022 merger. That’s a key benchmark for Reverse Morris Trust tax reasons. It means that Warner Bros. Discovery can do another significant deal two years after the close of the previous merger.

There’s also speculation within the industry that Warner Bros. Discovery could end up in merger talks with Comcast’s NBCUniversal.

Axios previously reported the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery talks. Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock fell more than 5% Wednesday after the news broke, while Paramount shares bounced a little off their lows.

— CNBC’s Drew Richardson contributed to this report.

Let’s say you have a crush on two people and you find out one of them may like you back. Do you just start dating that person, or do you find out what the other person thinks, too?

That’s where Warner Bros. Discovery finds itself today. The company has held preliminary merger talks with Paramount Global, the media conglomerate controlled by Shari Redstone. Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish on Tuesday to discuss what a merger of the companies may look like, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Crush” may actually be too strong here. This is not a case of both companies lusting for each other. It’s more of a partnership of necessity. Neither company has a clear future competing for content in a streaming-dominated world where Apple, Amazon, Netflix and YouTube owner Google have far larger balance sheets. They just want to survive and boost their share price.

But maybe Warner Bros. Discovery would rather merge with Comcast’s NBCUniversal — if Comcast is open to it. There may be regulatory issues with NBCUniversal. It’s unclear whether officials would allow Universal and Warner Bros. to come together. This year, they’re the top two U.S. movie studios by revenue. While smaller than Warner Bros. or Universal, Paramount is still a top five studio most years.

Comcast also owns cable news channel MSNBC, which may or may not be a problem for regulators given that Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN.

Deal structure will be important here. If Comcast spins out NBCUniversal to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery, it could theoretically give Zaslav debt-free earnings to strengthen the combined company’s balance sheet.

That might be more enticing than taking on Paramount Global’s $15 billion of debt. Warner Bros. Discovery has nearly $45 billion of debt and has worked to bring down its leverage all year by boosting free cash flow. Buying Paramount Global might be viewed as starting over for Zaslav, who hasn’t made many friends in Hollywood with his intensive cutting of both jobs and content spending.

It’s also possible Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wants to hold on to NBCUniversal and isn’t interested in doubling down on legacy media right now. NBCUniversal isn’t in merger talks with anyone right now, according to a person familiar with the matter. Spokespeople for Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global all declined to comment.

Generally speaking, Comcast’s NBCUniversal has similar assets to Paramount Global. They both have broadcast networks: NBC for NBCUniversal and CBS for Paramount Global. They both own a slew of aging cable networks. NBCUniversal’s include Bravo, E! and USA. Paramount Global’s include Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central. Both companies have subscale, money-losing streaming services. Paramount Global owns Paramount+ (and Showtime), and NBCUniversal has Peacock.

NBCUniversal probably isn’t a merger fit with Paramount Global, though. Both companies’ ownership of broadcast networks likely makes that deal a non-starter.

Opening discussions with Paramount Global should give Warner Bros. Discovery a read on where Comcast stands on deal-making. Is Comcast OK with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery merging? Or does Roberts want to combine with Warner Bros. Discovery instead, leaving Paramount Global without an obvious dance partner? Would that lead Redstone to selling her stake in National Amusements and letting someone else, like David Ellison at Skydance, figure out the future for Paramount Global?

Those discussions have now begun. They will almost certainly heat up in the coming weeks and months. The starting gun has been fired. Welcome to 2024.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said Thursday that he’s gearing up to join a succession planning committee at Disney, which will advise the board on choosing CEO Bob Iger’s successor.

Gorman is set to step down as Morgan Stanley CEO Jan. 1. He will join Disney’s board in February.

Disney announced last month that Gorman was joining the company’s board. The announcement also included the appointment of former Sky TV boss Jeremy Darroch, beginning in January.

The move was seen as a way to hold off a proxy fight by activist fund Trian and its chief, Nelson Peltz, although Trian voiced dissatisfaction with the appointments in a statement. Trian said it would push for Peltz and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo to join the board.

Gorman has won praise for how he managed the succession process at Morgan Stanley.

“Disney is forming a succession committee, which I’ll be joining,” Gorman told CNBC’s David Faber. “I don’t start as a director until February.” He added: “But I have an enormous amount of experience having run succession here on Morgan Stanley’s board.”

Gorman also noted that he’s dealt with activist investors before. “We have had a lot of battles in my life,” he said of the Disney proxy fight. “That doesn’t bother me one little bit.”

Disney said Gorman was referring to the succession committee the company announced in January. The company disclosed Gorman would join the panel in a securities filing last month.

Disney re-appointed Iger as CEO in November 2022, following the tumultuous tenure of his hand-picked successor Bob Chapek. Before he ended his previous reign as CEO, Iger renewed his contract multiple times. In July, the company extended Iger’s contract through 2026.

The company has faced a number headwinds in recent years, including box office flops and streaming losses. Earlier this year, Iger reorganized the company, laying off 7,000 employees while looking to cut $7.5 billion in costs.

Tune in: “CNBC Leaders: James Gorman” airs at 8 p.m. ET Friday on CNBC.

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