An anti-monopoly mobile billboard, meant to caution against the impending merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., will circle Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. The billboard’s message is plain: “Call Your Agent. Speak Out. The Deal Is Not Done.”
The visual features Paramount CEO David Ellison, Oracle executive Larry Ellison and Donald Trump, alongside anti-merger messaging and the logos of major media companies. The action was organized by Fight Corporate Monopolies.
The ceremony will take place days after California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced plans to investigate the proposed $110 billion deal. Bonta has accused the president of abandoning his responsibilities as an antitrust enforcer.
Trump has “abdicated the federal administration’s responsibilities to hold big corporations accountable to the law and protect a competitive marketplace,” Bonta said. He added that states may increasingly be expected to fill the role formerly filled by the federal government.
Also on Thursday the International Brotherhood of Teamsters submitted a report to the U.S. Department of Justice and asked it to block the proposed merger.
“The film and television industry has been in a fragile and fluctuating state for the last several years and entertainment workers are simply trying to survive through that instability,” Teamsters Motion Picture Division Director Lindsay Dougherty said. “Another mega‑merger is the last thing this industry needs.”
The union’s General President Sean O’Brien also said the merger “threatens the livelihoods of the very workers who built these studios into industry giants.”
“We’ve seen what happens when corporations consolidate power: jobs disappear, production leaves American communities, and workers pay the price. The DOJ has a responsibility to stop deals that eliminate competition and harm working families,” O’Brien said. “Unless Paramount and Warner Bros. can guarantee enforceable protections for domestic production and labor standards, this merger can’t be allowed to move forward.”
Together, the combined company will own a film library of more than 15,000 titles and thousands of hours of television programming, including franchises such as “Harry Potter,” “Mission Impossible,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones,” the DC Universe, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Transformers,” “Star Trek” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
It will also control rights to the NFL, Olympics, UFC, PGA Tour, NHL, Big Ten and Big 12 football, NCAA College basketball and Champions League and a vast portfolio of cable and free-to-air networks in over 200 countries and territories, including HBO, MTV, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel and more.
