MAGA ownership<\/a> over the likes of CNN, CBS and lots of cable channels and studios.<\/p>\nAnd yet Paramount Skydance appears to think some studio executives are pulling those strings. <\/p>\n
It seems that every press release in response to Bonta\u2019s lawsuit has a Netflix reference, highlighting how the deal will create a viable competitor that can prevent Netflix from overpricing the most popular way entertainment and news is now consumed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will say it is odd that Paramount seems weirdly obsessed with Netflix,\u201d Rich Greenfield recently told me and my partner Bob Sloan on our \u201cRisk and Return\u201d podcast. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything they put out has \u2018Netflix\u2019 multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ted Sarandos arrives on the red carpet before the 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Award at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on Sunday, June 28, 2026. Bonnie Cash\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Leave La La land?<\/p>\n
This \u201cobsession\u201d might explain why the company on the eve of the lawsuit leaked an odd bit of news: That David Ellison is being advised simply to move his headquarters out of Los Angeles, rather than deal with people like Bonta.<\/p>\n
Left out of the overheated coverage of this \u201cmove\u201d has been a simple reality check: It\u2019s one thing to, say, take Tesla\u2019s Gigafactory out of Cali for the friendlier confines of Texas, as Elon Musk did. <\/p>\n
But try doing that with a media company that will own a pair of iconic, century-old studio lots if the deal is consummated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is sort of funny when you have all of your talent basically in New York and LA, you\u2019re going to have all of your senior management team flying around the country to do meetings with talent?\u201d Greenfield added.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive me a break.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison speaks during the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on October 9, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
That said, everyone in the media knows Netflix is loving the drama. <\/p>\n
The suit could weaken a competitor even if the deal closes. <\/p>\n
A ticking fee of $650 million every quarter if it doesn\u2019t close by September is just one problem. <\/p>\n
Another is that integration is time-consuming and could be delayed until 2027 if a Biden-appointed federal judge grants a preliminary injunction against the deal, setting the stage for a lengthy court battle.<\/p>\n
The Ellisons understand not only this, but also the fact that their strong legal hand doesn\u2019t really matter here. <\/p>\n
Just read the complaint and you get the feeling Bonta is living in the 1990s \u2014 ignorant of YouTube, streaming, the rise of Amazon, Apple and social media, everything that has upended legacy media. <\/p>\n
With cord cutting rampant in the streaming era, where\u2019s the monopoly pricing power in controlling more than 50 cable channels or maintaining two studios?<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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The \u2018Trump\u2019 link<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all beside the point, of course. <\/p>\n
Bonta wants a political spectacle. <\/p>\n
He has all but admitted it. <\/p>\n
Just as Paramount doesn\u2019t miss a chance to mention Netflix in its defense, Bonta doesn\u2019t miss a chance to mention Trump in his rationale for bringing the case, that the president relishes one of his best buds in charge of a vast news and entertainment empire. It\u2019s as if in suing the Ellisons he\u2019s suing The Donald.<\/p>\n
So despite his tough legal hand, Bonta will milk this for all it\u2019s worth. <\/p>\n
The Ellisons\u2019 inability to integrate CBS, CNN, studios and streaming services would certainly make Sarandos\u2019s year after his humiliating defeat in the months-long WBD bidding war.<\/p>\n
And who knows what the future has in store if this deal fails? <\/p>\n
Maybe Netflix will be back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say there\u2019s a 20-to-1 chance,\u201d one person inside the deal told me. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut all that it takes is one crazy, left-wing judge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reps for PSKY and Netflix didn\u2019t comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount Skydance may have won the battle to buy Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 but its war against rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[387,7,9,8,9233,6336,162145],"class_list":["post-404199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-netflix","tag-paramount","tag-skydance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}