{"id":787300,"date":"2026-07-27T12:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/787300\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T12:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:47:18","slug":"benedict-cumberbatch-paramount-warner-deal-a-calamity-for-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/787300\/","title":{"rendered":"Benedict Cumberbatch: Paramount-Warner Deal A “Calamity” For UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBenedict Cumberbatch<\/a> has co-authored an op-ed with Alan Cumming<\/a> and Benedict Wong in which the actors argue that Paramount<\/a>\u2018s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> should be blocked in the UK.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn The Guardian article<\/a>, headlined \u2018A TV and cinema calamity could be disastrous for what you watch and what you know. Act now to stop that,\u2019 the actors called on Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to intervene in the $111 billion merger for the good of the British screen industry.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt follows Nandy telling UK Parliament that she is \u201cminded to intervene\u201d in the takeover, but she is yet to make a final decision on whether to submit the union to a full public interest investigation. She is expected to reach a conclusion when Parliament returns from its summer break in September<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tCumberbatch, Cumming and Wong wrote: \u201cNandy has opened the door to intervention. She must walk through it, for the sake of everyone who makes UK television and film \u2013 and everyone who watches it. If she does not, we will be left without the ability to protect our industry and our culture from this consolidation. We must not push the public\u2019s interest aside; we must stand up for it and block this merger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount declined to comment, but a spokesperson pointed to a February open letter CEO David Ellison<\/a> wrote to the UK creative community, committing to content investment, theatrical windows, and preserving HBO.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actors voiced concerns about the Paramount-Warner merger putting the \u201clivelihoods of thousands of workers\u201d at risk in the UK. They are also anxious about the concentration of news services, given that the combined company would control 5 News, CNN International, and CBS News. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne owner controlling this much of the news, and the truth, endangers the public in a way no ordinary consolidation does,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd we know something about this particular proprietor\u2019s intentions. Paramount\u2019s chief executive reportedly told Donald Trump that he would make \u2018sweeping changes\u2019 to CNN if the deal went through. When the buyer of the world\u2019s most trusted international news channel makes editorial promises to a politician, a British secretary of state is entitled \u2013 and, really, obliged \u2013 to ask questions before the ink dries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trio added: \u201cShould her department decide to intervene, it may prove one of the most important decisions any culture secretary has taken for UK film, television and media in a generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir op-ed follows WarnerMount securing regulatory clearance in the European Union last week, before the deal was put on ice until June 2027<\/a>, or until shortly after the merits of lawsuits brought by\u00a0state attorneys general<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Writers Guild of America<\/a>\u00a0are resolved.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pause makes Nandy\u2019s decision slightly less pivotal, given it looked at one point that the UK could stand in the way of Paramount meeting its closure deadline of September 30. Paramount\u2019s deal could close without UK clearance because the merger control regime is non-suspensory, though Ellison has always intended to respect the British process.<\/p>\n

\n\tCumming has previously made his feelings known about the merger. Earlier this month, The Traitors\u00a0host posted a video as part of a coalition calling itself Block the Merger UK<\/a>, which urged people to contact the Department for Culture, Media and Sport or regulator Ofcom, demanding they examine the merger in more depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benedict Cumberbatch has co-authored an op-ed with Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong in which the actors argue that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[50325,5433,88,4208,10343],"class_list":["post-787300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alan-cumming","tag-benedict-cumberbatch","tag-entertainment","tag-paramount","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787300","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=787300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}