President Donald Trump on Sunday confirmed he recently met with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the White House to discuss the Warner Bros. Discovery deal — and said the market share of a combined Netflix with WB and HBO Max “could be a problem.”
Trump, speaking with reporters on the red carpet of the Kennedy Center Honors event in Washington, D.C., said Netflix’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. studios and streaming business will require a review, and said, “I’ll be involved in that decision.”
Trump is upending decades of tradition with his decision to host Sunday’s 48th Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, where the honorees are Sylvester Stallone, KISS members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss, singer-actor Michael Crawford, country superstar George Strait and disco diva Gloria Gaynor. He told the crowd gathered for the most prestigious event on Washington’s arts calendar that he didn’t know why he decided to host.
“I’m acting like Johnny Carson,” Trump quipped as he spoke from behind a podium with the Presidential seal — a first for the ceremony. Highlights of the event will be telecast Dec. 23 as a primetime special on CBS.
In typical fashion, befitting his roots as a real estate developer, Trump also declared, “We’re bringing this building back to life.” Trump was quick to execute a top-to-bottom makeover of Kennedy Center staff this past spring, after his odds-defying return to the White House.
Trump was upbeat as he opened the event and steered clear of slinging barbs at political foes. However, he did nod to the shift in the wind for Washington, D.C.’s social elite: “Many of you are miserable, horrible people,” he asserted.
Trump was on stage to introduce the first award presentation to Stallone, a Hollywood legend and MAGA-friendly celebrity. Trump then took his seat in the Kennedy Center auditorium box typically reserved for the Commander in Chief. The award introduction for Crawford was done via video in a pre-recorded segment with Trump speaking from the Oval Office.
The Kennedy Center kudo has long been one of the most prestigious laurel for entertainment figures to receive. The traditional KenCen ceremony includes lengthy clip packages and retrospectives that put the honorees influence and culture impact into context. This time around, there was no such tribute to Stallone. Longtime Kennedy Center Honors producers Done + Dusted bowed out of producing this years’ ceremony after Trump unceremoniously dismissed KenCen’s board chairman, Carlyle Group chairman David Rubenstein, and KenCen president Deborah Rutter.
In his remarks on the red carpet, Trump said that the government review of Netflix’s proposed $83 billion deal for Warner Bros., which was announced Friday, must “go through a process, and we’ll see what happens.”
According to Trump, Sarandos visited the Oval Office last week. The Netflix exec is “a fantastic man,” the president said. “I have a lot of respect for him, but it’s a lot of market share.”
Trump also said of Sarandos, “He’s a great person… He’s got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you’re talking about, but it is a big market share. There’s no question about it. It could be a problem.”
The blockbuster pact would add HBO Max to Netflix’s already massive customer base of more than 300 million. As of the end of Q3, Warner Bros. Discovery reported 128.0 million streaming subscribers, which includes HBO Max as well as Discovery+ and its sports-streaming services.
The Netflix deal for Warner Bros. is both a horizontal merger between rival streaming services and a vertical merger, adding a massive distribution pipeline for Warner Bros. content. It could also shrink the marketplace for content producers.
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are expected to review the Netflix-WB deal. The FCC is not expected to play a role in reviewing the transaction because of the nature of assets involved; WBD does not own broadcast TV stations or cable systems.
Sarandos, speaking on a call with Wall Street analysts Friday, expressed optimism that the deal will clear regulatory approval. Netflix and WBD projected the deal will close in 12-18 months.
“[We are] really confident that we’re going to get all the necessary approvals that we need,” Sarandos told analysts. “This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it’s pro-creator, it’s pro-growth.”
Execs routinely point out on Netflix earnings calls that even in its most mature markets, including the U.S., Netflix represents less than 10% of total TV viewing. Sarandos, in his meeting with Trump, conveyed to the president that even combined with Warner Bros. and HBO Max, Netflix would grow to be about as big as Google’s YouTube in the U.S. — and would still have less TV market share than other media conglomerates, according to a Bloomberg report.