{"id":872233,"date":"2026-10-06T01:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872233\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T01:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T01:20:08","slug":"bid-to-block-paramount-warner-bros-discovery-filed-to-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872233\/","title":{"rendered":"Bid to Block Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Filed to Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAn emergency bid has been filed challenging Paramount<\/a>\u2018s $110 billion megadeal for Warner Bros.<\/a> Discovery, the closing legal salvo over a merger that will reshape Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount subscribers, in a court document filed on Monday, ask Justice Elena Kagan to issue an order that would stop Paramount from closing the deal until their case is considered. The merger goes through on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin signed off<\/a> on a settlement agreed to by Paramount, the states and the Writers Guild of America resolving the case. She also declined to issue a last-minute temporary restraining order requested by Paramount subscribers. In the first lawsuit challenging the deal, they had alleged that the acquisition will substantially throttle competition in streaming, news and theatrical distribution in violation of antitrust laws.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Monday\u2019s filing, the subscribers claim that the terms of the states\u2019 deal \u201cdo not preserve competition between Paramount and Warner Bros.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the agreement, Paramount and Warner Bros. must release at least 30 theatrical films a year for the first two years and 32 for the following three, maintain minimum numbers of wide and independent releases, and ensure that at least half of the films are produced or jointly produced by the combined company. Other notable terms: Keeping Paramount and Warner Bros. basic-cable negotiations separate and creation of a five-member independent board overseeing editorial standards at CBS News and CNN (selected by Paramount). A violation of the former term could see an order forcing the studio to divest from BET, VH1 and Comedy Central, among other channels, though blue-chip assets like CNN or New Line Cinema are not on the table in these divestiture scenarios.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe subscribers argue that Martinez-Olguin improperly rebuffed their bid for a temporary restraining order \u201con a premise the record directly contradicts.\u201d They challenge her conclusion that they did not offer enough evidence showing that the merger should be stalled.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe district court stated that Applicants again failed to proffer any evidence, that they were left with allegations, and that future TRO or preliminary-injunction motions submitted without evidentiary support would face summary denial,\u201d writes Joseph Alioto, a lawyer for the subscribers, in the filing. \u201cYet Applicants had specifically directed the court to Respondents\u2019 declaration, authenticated exhibits, Ellison\u2019s statements, and the consumer verifications. The extraordinary showing begins with that clear factual error: the evidence the court said did not exist was already in its record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filing also says that public interest favors freezing the deal until the Supreme Court considers the case.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a \u201cfair prospect of reversal,\u201d Alioto writes. \u201cThe district court\u2019s stated premise was not that the evidence was weak; it was that Applicants offered none.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBefore the settlement was reached, the court granted the states\u2019 bid to temporarily stop Paramount<\/a> from closing the merger. The decision swung on Paramount\u2019s anticipated 27 percent market share in wide-release theatrical distribution. On that front, the court found that it can \u201cpresume the proposed merger is likely to violate antitrust laws\u201d because it may \u201csubstantially lessen competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the 11th-hour filing to be successful, the Supreme Court would have to immediately issue an order stopping Paramount from closing. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn Tuesday, David Ellison announced the senior executives who will help him run the combined Paramount-Warner Bros<\/a>. Discovery. He will be chairman and CEO, with former Mattel chief Ynon Keiz joining him as co-CEO. Casey Bloys will run Skydance\u2019s streaming business, with Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg overseeing the combined company\u2019s film studios. Mark Thompson will continue to operate CNN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emergency bid has been filed challenging Paramount\u2018s $110 billion megadeal for Warner Bros. Discovery, the closing legal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,4208,324153,5251],"class_list":["post-872233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-warner-bros","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872233","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=872233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}