{"id":714166,"date":"2026-06-19T19:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714166\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T19:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:54:17","slug":"senators-call-on-fcc-to-prevent-paramount-wbd-merger-from-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/714166\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators Call On FCC To Prevent Paramount-WBD Merger From Closing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThree Democratic senators are calling on the FCC<\/a> to bar the Paramount<\/a>\u2013Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> merger from closing until an agency review of foreign ownership is pending.<\/p>\n

\n\tSen. Cory Booker<\/a> (D-NJ), Sen. Adam Schiff<\/a> (D-CA) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren<\/a> (D-MA) wrote in a letter<\/a> to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr that the commission \u201chas an obligation to honestly answer a fundamental question: whether placing 49.5 percent of the equity in the parent company of CBS, CNN, and 28 broadcast television stations into the hands of three foreign governments serves the American public. We are prepared to pursue every available avenue\u2014legislative, oversight, and legal\u2014to ensure that it does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u00a0has disclosed that total foreign ownership\u00a0<\/a>of the combined company would be 49.5%, including 38.5% from investment funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Paramount\u00a0has petitioned the FCC<\/a>\u00a0to sign off on the foreign investment, as any foreign ownership stake above 25% requires agency approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the FCC process, the transaction is being reviewed <\/a>by the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector, which analyzes potential national security and law enforcement risks. On Tuesday, the committee started the clock on a 120-day review period, but there is some expectation that it will be completed before then. <\/p>\n

\n\tParamount has pledged to close the transaction by September 30, after which they would pay shareholders a \u201cticking fee\u201d of several million dollars a day. The merger cleared a significant hurdle last week, when the Justice Department closed its antitrust investigation and declined to challenge it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their letter, the senators wrote that the FCC \u201cmust foreclose any attempt by Paramount to close this transaction before [the security] review is complete. That review must rigorously assess the national security threats posed by foreign government investment in one of the nation\u2019s largest news media companies. The Commission must also incorporate the Committee\u2019s recommendations\u2014a process that, under the governing rules, could take seven months or more\u2014before the Commission takes any final action on the petition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAn FCC spokesperson did not return a request for comment. Carr has previously said that the FCC\u2019s role in the merger would be minimal.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their letter, the lawmakers also pointed to Paramount\u2019s request <\/a>to the FCC for approval \u201cup to 100% indirect aggregate foreign equity and voting interests in the controlling U.S. parent, Paramount.\u201d Paramount has said that, despite the foreign ownership stake, voting rights and decision making functions will be controlled by the Ellison family through their U.S. entities.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe senators wrote that the company \u201cseeks far more than approval for the 49.5 percent aggregate foreign investment. The media conglomerate is requesting advance approval for each foreign investor to increase its individual stake up to 20 percent in the future, which, should each of the Sovereign Wealth Funds exercise that option, could result in up to 100 percent aggregate foreign ownership of one of the nation\u2019s largest broadcast media companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey also raised questions about the structure of the transaction, writing that to \u201cour knowledge, no transaction previously reviewed by the FCC has involved foreign sovereign wealth fund investment of this kind. This layered entity structure, seemingly designed to fragment ownership across multiple vehicles, raises serious questions about the true nature and extent of foreign government control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a filing with the FCC last week<\/a>, Paramount\u2019s legal team wrote that \u201cample precedent supports permitting foreign investment in Paramount of up to and including 100 percent.\u201d They noted that the FCC has \u201cemphasized that foreign investment has provided much-needed capital to U.S. broadcasters, allowing them to upgrade their facilities and technology, invest in programming, and maintain the quality of their service to the public.\u201d Paramount\u2019s team also noted a provision of the statute that \u201cforeign ownership of broadcast licenses should be barred only \u2018if the Commission finds that the public interest will be served by the refusal or revocation of such license.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s team said that the company \u201chas repeatedly committed\u201d that \u201cno foreign investor will have the ability to control Paramount or the Licensees; to the contrary, Paramount will ensure that there will be no interference with the editorial or decision-making policies of its broadcast stations (or CBS News or any other facets of Paramount\u2019s news and entertainment programming).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe transaction also is awaiting clearance from UK and European Union regulators. A group of state attorneys general also is reviewing the transaction. <\/p>\n

\n\tA Paramount spokesperson said, \u201cWhen the WBD transaction and equity syndication close, the Ellison family and RedBird will collectively hold the largest equity stake in the combined company. The Ellison\u00a0family\u00a0(77.5%) and RedBird (22.5%) will also own 100% of the voting shares, with no other equity syndication party having\u00a0any governance rights, voting shares, or Board representation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three Democratic senators are calling on the FCC to bar the Paramount\u2013Warner Bros. Discovery merger from closing until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64443,28,37003,5109,11733,3092,4208,226553,10343],"class_list":["post-714166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-adam-schiff","tag-business","tag-cory-booker","tag-electionline","tag-elizabeth-warren","tag-fcc","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wb","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714166","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=714166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}