Paramount CEO David Ellison declined Democratic Sen. Cory Booker’s invitation to attend a Senate antitrust subcommittee hearing on the company’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery due to a death in the family, Paramount’s head of public policy wrote in a letter.
Ellison will be at a funeral instead, Paramount Senior Vice President and Head of Public Policy Ted Lehman wrote to Booker on Tuesday in a letter obtained by TheWrap and first reported by the New York Times. Lehman did not disclose whose funeral Ellison was attending, and a Paramount spokesperson did not respond to an immediate request for more details.
In his letter, Lehman pointed to Paramount’s past positions on the deal, which the company believes would benefit the entertainment industry.
“Our view on the proposed Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery deal is quite straight forward: We believe the transaction should be reviewed on the merits,” Lehman wrote. “And on the merits, the transaction is procompetitive.”
Booker asked Ellison on Monday to appear before the subcommittee’s hearing examining the impacts of the deal, which could potentially consolidate parts of Paramount and Warner Bros.’ studios and merge the news operations of CNN and CBS News.
“As the leader of the company seeking to execute one of the largest media mergers in American history, your continued unwillingness to engage with Congressional oversight is itself a matter of public concern,” Booker wrote to Ellison, referencing Ellison’s previous decisions not to attend.
The hearing is expected to include “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” director David Borenstein, political commentator Katie Phang and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a member of the steering committee of Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment and the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.
Fonda’s group published an open letter on Monday from a score of actors, writers and directors across Hollywood arguing against the merger. The letter, which has now amassed more than 2,000 signatures, claimed the deal prioritizes “a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good” and “would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape.”
Lehman argued in his Tuesday note that the deal “is all about increaing the amount of content released in theaters and streaming platforms” and would spark “greater demand for creative talent.”
“We want customers in theaters, where they can experience the full moviegoing experience, and the increased number of theatrical releases that the combined company will generate will provide our streaming platform with an impressive array of content that will check the dominance of rivals like Netflix,” Lehman wrote.
