A day after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority cleared the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger on its end, the Block the Merger coalition is once again warning of the potential harm that could be caused by the $110 billion deal.
“U.K. Secretary Nandy’s ability to obtain major concessions from Paramount lends powerful credibility to the case 12 state attorneys general have brought here in the U.S,” the group wrote on Friday. “If this merger required binding remedies even in the UK, where Paramount and Warner hold a far weaker market position and the CMA has grown reluctant to block big mergers, the dangers in the more concentrated US market are unmistakable. Here, the deal would unite two of the top three basic cable programmers and create exactly the anti-competitive, anti-consumer and anti-creator harms our antitrust laws guard against.”
“The concessions on fair access to the CNN, CBS and Channel 5 archives, for commissioners and news entities to maintain editorial independence, and various promises not to consolidate elements of their business –including streaming services — are encouraging, but they’re not the whole fight,” the statement continued. “The state AGs’ suit makes clear that this merger is illegal under U.S. antitrust standards. Concessions, even when legally binding in theory, in practice prove almost impossible to enforce.”
The response comes after U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy decided not to intervene after Paramount CEO David Ellison agreed to a number of concessions. Those conditions include not combining linear channels with its streaming services, maintaining editorial independence of its news services and children’s networks and providing more funding to Channel 5.
The combined company would become the U.K.’s largest distributor, but the CMA ultimately determined Paramount-WBD would face sufficient competition from Universal, Disney, Sony, Netflix, Apple, Amazon’s Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and ITVX in varying capacities. Still, BTM believes the dozen state AGs will win their case come March 2027.
“Our position remains the same – the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger is a dangerous consolidation that will harm film, entertainment and independent press in markets around the world,” the coalition concluded. “State attorneys general hold independent authority to enforce antitrust laws, and we are confident they will prevail at trial and fully block this merger.”
Stateside, a 12-day antitrust trial has been set for March 2, 2027. This delay brought on by the 12 state AGs and the Writers Guild of America has also activated Paramount’s ticking fee of 25 cents per share per day starting Oct. 1, which translates to a payout of roughly $7 million per day and at least $1.06 billion in total. In the event that the deal does not close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount will pay WBD a $7 billion termination fee.
