{"id":490304,"date":"2026-02-25T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490304\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:29:07","slug":"netflix-warner-bros-deal-bad-for-america-gop-attorneys-general-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490304\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix-Warner Bros Deal Bad For America, GOP Attorneys General Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs events are leaning toward David Ellison and Paramount<\/a> prevailing in its $108 billion hostile-takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery, almost a dozen Republican state attorneys general are insisting that the federal government heavily scrutinize Netflix<\/a>\u2018s bid for the iconic studio.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe, the undersigned Attorneys General, write to express our concerns that the proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Brothers will likely result in undue market concentration that stifles competition and therefore creates higher prices, lower reliability, and less innovation for one of America\u2019s major industries \u2014 all to the detriment of American consumers,\u201d wrote 11 red state AGs in a letter<\/a> to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt added, \u201cGiven the stakes, we encourage the Department of Justice to subject this proposed merger to a thorough and exacting review under the Clayton Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRead the full letter, sent Tuesday, here.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis latest political shoe to drop in the battle between Netflix and Paramount for WBD<\/a> comes just days after the U.S. Department of Justice began a formal antitrust probe<\/a> into the streamer run by co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. The letter also comes the same day Paramount CEO David Ellison was a guest of GOP lawmakers<\/a> at \u201cgood friend\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s State of the Union address last night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, realpolitik aside, the probes into Netflix\u2019s accepted $83 billion bid<\/a> for WBD\u2019s streaming and studio assets has again been characterized as a form of consumer protection and consumer choice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis massive consolidation would place an unprecedented amount of content, distribution power, and market influence into the hands of a single corporation,\u201d\u00a0Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a press release of his own regarding the letter.\u00a0\u201cHistory shows us what happens when industries become dominated by a few giants: prices rise, choices shrink, and innovation suffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKnudsen joined AGs from Alabama, Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount and Netflix both did not respond to a request for comment on the new letter. Paramount reports fourth quarter earnings after the bell later on Wednesday. Warner Bros. Discovery financials will hit early on Thursday. Both will be followed by investor calls with executives, as stakeholders dissect CEO commentary, numbers and outlook for key divisions, from linear to streaming to studios, for clues to how this M&A process could, or should, unfold.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn various red carpets and in numerous interviews and subcommittee meetings, Sarandos has insisted that the streamer does not have and will not have a monopoly with or without the WBD deal. Taking a big-digital-picture approach, the exec says the real competition for Netflix is [soon-to-be Oscar rightsholder] YouTube, not other streamers.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Sarandos has drawn praise from Donald Trump, the president\u2019s allies have singled out the streamer while expressing little concern over the possibility of Paramount winning Warner Bros. Discovery, something that also generates concerns in the industry over consolidation. Ellison was a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), while other lawmakers have pressed Sarandos over Netflix\u2019s content, including that featuring transgender storylines. An offshoot of the Heritage Foundation, authors of Project 2025, launched Project Netflix<\/a>, designed to scuttle the deal by claiming the streamer is engaged in left wing social engineering.<\/p>\n

\n\tDemocrats also have concerns about the Netflix-WB merger as well as a Paramount transaction. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, last week said that his office<\/a> will give a \u201cfull and robust review\u201d to either deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Washington, Democrats have directed most of their investigative threats and demands at Paramount and Ellison. Last week, a group of senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-CA) sent Ellison a letter <\/a>urging him to preserve records, while querying him on contacts he and others have had with the administration. Ellison\u2019s attendance at the SOTU as the guest of one of the president\u2019s most strident supporters certainly won\u2019t alleviate their suspicions, and are a contrast the the Paramount CEO\u2019s insistence last year that he didn\u2019t intend to \u201cpoliticize\u201d the company.<\/p>\n

\n\tJill Goldsmith contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As events are leaning toward David Ellison and Paramount prevailing in its $108 billion hostile-takeover bid for Warner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,217,168491,17204,4208,20007],"class_list":{"0":"post-490304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-netflix","10":"tag-netflix-wb","11":"tag-novid","12":"tag-paramount","13":"tag-wbd"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}