{"id":774335,"date":"2026-09-18T04:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T04:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774335\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T04:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T04:32:10","slug":"paramount-wbd-merger-clears-fcc-foreign-ownership-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774335\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount-WBD Merger Clears FCC Foreign Ownership Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe FCC<\/a> Paramount<\/a>\u2018s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> cleared an FCC review of its foreign ownership<\/a> stake.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount has disclosed that total foreign ownership <\/a>of the combined company would be 49.5%, including 38.5% from investment funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Paramount had petitioned the FCC<\/a> to sign off on the foreign investment, as any foreign ownership stake above 25% requires agency approval.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn its declaratory ruling<\/a>, the FCC said that it believed that the \u201cpublic interest would be served by granting the Petition.\u201d Foreign owners are restricted from holding broadcast licenses, so the FCC had a role in the regulatory review of the transaction because of Paramount\u2019s holding of CBS stations.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount contends that the foreign investments do not pose national security, law enforcement, foreign policy or trade policy concerns. They noted that the Ellison family will retain a majority of the voting interests and control, while the foreign investors will not have voting control or governance.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC ruling included a provision that the company said must obtain permission if \u201cParamount\u2019s foreign voting interests in the aggregate exceed 25%, or if it proposes to change the voting interests of any of the approved Foreign Investors under this Declaratory Ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, along with Democrats on Capitol Hill, have raised issues <\/a>about the foreign ownership stake in the transaction. <\/p>\n

\n\tA Paramount spokesperson said, \u201cWhen the proposed transaction with Warner Bros. Discovery closes, the Ellison family and RedBird will collectively hold the largest equity stake in the combined company and 100% of the voting shares, with no other equity participant having any governance rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe spokesperson noted that the ruling came after a national security review by the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector. Paramount submitted a letter of agreement related to protections for data and provisions that formalize restrictions on the rights and access of foreign investors.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Gomez said, \u201cThe FCC just let some of the most repressive governments in the world indirectly control nearly all of a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. An investment this large in one of America\u2019s biggest media companies doesn\u2019t just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said and what gets made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I called for this new and novel issue to go to a full Commission vote given what\u2019s at stake. Instead, the FCC snuck this ruling out as a staff-level decision, with no public vote and no accountability for a call of this magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FCC Paramount\u2018s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery cleared an FCC review of its foreign ownership stake.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,55926,21629,255437,59,3770,183478,56,54,55,18200],"class_list":["post-774335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-electionline","tag-fcc","tag-foreign-ownership","tag-gb","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}