said<\/a> in a post on the social media platform X.<\/p>\nAl Jazeera reached out to both the Writers and Screen Actors Guilds for comment, but neither group was immediately available.<\/p>\n
The merger, if approved, will add HBO Max\u2019s 128 million subscribers to Netflix\u2019s more than 300 million, creating a formidable player.<\/p>\n
Cinema United, a global exhibition trade association, has said the deal poses an \u201cunprecedented threat\u201d to movie theatres worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn light of the current regulatory environment, this will raise eyebrows and concerns. The combined dominant streaming player will be heavily scrutinised,\u201d said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore to the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
Scrutiny from Washington<\/h2>\n
Even before the bids were in, some members of Congress said a Netflix\u2013Warner Bros Discovery deal could harm consumers and Hollywood. The White House also weighed in, with the administration viewing it with \u201cheavy scepticism\u201d, according to CNBC, which cited an unnamed senior administration official.<\/p>\n
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said the move will be an \u201canti-trust nightmare\u201d and stressed that the merger would limit choice for consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Netflix-Warner Bros would create one massive media giant with control of close to half of the streaming market \u2014 threatening to force Americans into higher subscription prices and fewer choices over what and how they watch, while putting American workers at risk,\u201d Warren said.<\/p>\n
US Representative Pramila Jayapal, who co-chairs the House Monopoly Busters Caucus, also called the deal a \u201cnightmare\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would mean more price hikes, ads, & cookie cutter content, less creative control for artists, and lower pay for workers,\u201d Jayapal said in a post on the social media site X. \u201cThe media industry is already controlled by a few corporations with too much power to censor free speech. The gov\u2019t must step in,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Republicans, too, said the deal would reduce choice for consumers and give Netflix an unacceptably high share of the streaming industry.<\/p>\n
The proposed merger is underscored by US President Donald Trump\u2019s view of the news organisations that cover his administration. CBS News, which is owned by Paramount-Skydance, has close ties to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison\u2019s son, David Ellison, leads Paramount-Skydance. The elder Ellison is considered to be close to Trump. Paramount-Skydance has been accused of making choices that align with the White House\u2019s wishes, including the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, as host Stephen Colbert was critical of the president. The network has said that the decision was not political in nature.<\/p>\n
In September, the network appointed Kenneth Weinstein as ombudsman and to review allegations of bias, even though Weinstein has no background in journalism, has been a Trump donor and had earlier headed a conservative think tank. In October, the network appointed conservative opinion writer Bari Weiss, who previously had no experience in television, to lead the legacy broadcaster\u2019s news division.<\/p>\n
Warner Bros Discovery owns news network CNN, and there were concerns that, should Paramount own it, it could bring in leadership that is aligned with Trump and the Republican Party, as have been the concerns about CBS.<\/p>\n
On Wall Street, Netflix is down 0.8 percent in midday trading while Warner Bros Discovery is up 3.5 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros Discovery TV, film studios and streaming division for $72bn, a deal that would hand control of one of Hollywood\u2019s most prized and oldest assets to the streaming pioneer. The agreement, announced on Friday, follows a weeks-long bidding war between Netflix and Paramount-Skydance. The streaming giant offered $28 per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}