<\/p>\n
Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> (WBD) announced plans\u00a0to sell<\/a>\u00a0Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios and streaming service HBO<\/a> Max to Netflix<\/a>, following a bidding war that also ended with a hostile takeover bid\u00a0by Paramount<\/a>. The planned sale would create a mammoth streaming and production giant with intellectual property rights to beloved franchises including Batman and Harry Potter. It\u2019s also sure to draw scrutiny from antitrust enforcers at the Department of Justice (DOJ).<\/p>\n Is this a step toward more viewer-friendly competition, or toward entertainment monopolization? What about Paramount\u2019s bid? Even President Trump\u00a0is concerned<\/a>\u00a0about the situation. But the answers aren\u2019t obvious.<\/p>\n The merging parties\u00a0argue that<\/a>\u00a0Netflix subscribers could benefit from an expanded content library and bundled services with HBO Max at lower prices. They also expect \u201cat least $2-3 billion of cost savings per year by the third year\u201d and combined resources that could foster more content and allow for bigger creative risks.<\/p>\n Importantly, the deal could create a stronger competitor against other diversified media giants including Amazon<\/a> and AppleTV, which are subsidized by their respective e-commerce and mobile\/computing platforms. Recent antitrust verdicts recognize the importance of such scale for competitiveness in digital markets. A\u00a02023 U.S. District Court decision<\/a>\u00a0approved Microsoft\u2019s merger with gaming studio Activision Blizzard<\/a>, as it allowed games to reach a wider audience while creating a stronger competitor against market leader Sony<\/a>.<\/p>\n Disney+\u00a0recently announced<\/a>\u00a0a foray into AI tools allowing users to generate and share their own content using proprietary characters and worlds. Combining Netflix\u2019s user-targeting algorithms with WBD\u2019s intellectual properties could create a\u00a0comparable alternative<\/a>. The new company may develop AI models and tools without risking the types of copyright infringement claims that have already ended in\u00a0expensive<\/a>\u00a0settlements and licensing deals.<\/p>\n Yet there are potential concerns. Netflix is known for exclusive content and disfavoring theatrical releases outside of narrow, award-show-timed windows. WBD is America\u2019s\u00a0third-largest<\/a>\u00a0theatrical content supplier and shares content with other streaming services. Netflix could presumably restrict content for both rival streaming services and theaters and possibly raise prices without losing customers.<\/p>\n All of this is speculatory. The merger\u00a0violates antitrust law if<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s likely to lead to less quality and innovation or higher prices, and if these harms to consumers won\u2019t be offset by benefits \u2014 subject, of course, to the interpretation of enforcers and judges.<\/p>\n The DOJ would find it easier to block the merger if it can persuade a court that Netflix-WBD would corner 30% of its market, making the deal\u00a0presumptively anticompetitive<\/a>\u00a0and forcing the companies to rebut this claim.<\/p>\n Expect enforcers to define a market of \u201cvideo-on-demand\u201d subscription streaming services, including Amazon, Hulu<\/a>, HBO Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Disney+, Apple TV, Peacock and others. Based on\u00a0recent decisions<\/a>, market share will likely be measured by viewing hours. This puts Netflix (20%) and HBO Max (15%) at\u00a0an estimated<\/a>\u00a035%.<\/p>\n Netflix and WBD may suggest\u00a0a broader entertainment market<\/a>\u00a0where subscription streaming, ad-supported video (like YouTube), social media and video games compete for user dollars and eyeballs, netting a much lower market share.<\/p>\n Based on the recent\u00a0FTC v. Meta<\/a>\u00a0decision, the court could opt for something in between. Meta successfully argued that consumers readily switch and substitute between apps like Facebook, Instagram<\/a>, Youtube and Tiktok for video content. But some services are more likely than others to be seen as substitutes for Netflix and HBO Max content.<\/p>\n Regardless, courts must still consider the merger\u2019s effect on competition. Netflix-WBD could try settling with the DOJ by making contractual assurances, such as committing to theatrically release future WBD content. These agreements can be costly to monitor and can lead to future disputes over firms keeping their commitments, as the\u00a02010 Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger<\/a>\u00a0demonstrates. But they can also preserve competitive benefits, mitigate potential harms and save the DOJ the trouble and costs of uncertain litigation.<\/p>\n Alternatively, WBD\u2019s shareholders may yet consider Paramount\u2019s offer for their entire business at a higher share price.\u00a0Backed by<\/a>\u00a0the president\u2019s son-in-law, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, it would raise some political controversy. But this combined entity\u2019s lower market share (26%<\/a>) and Paramount\u2019s historical support for theatrical releases may smooth some antitrust hurdles.<\/p>\n In the end, consumers will win if courts and enforcers act based on evidence. If consumer behavior and other economic and real-world data show that a merger will limit vigorous competition and result in higher prices and less quality or innovation, the government is entitled to act. If not, enforcers should acknowledge that in rapidly evolving digital media markets, scale means being able to stay competitive and make bold investments that herald the next generation of entertainment innovation.<\/p>\n In more ways than one, we\u2019ll be watching.<\/p>\n The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of\u00a0<\/em>Fortune.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source fortune.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced plans\u00a0to sell\u00a0Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios and streaming service HBO Max to Netflix, following a bidding war that also ended with a hostile takeover bid\u00a0by Paramount. The planned sale would create a mammoth streaming and production giant with intellectual property rights to beloved franchises including Batman and Harry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2196288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[406702,23191,309286,328922],"class_list":["post-2196287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-antitrust","tag-netflix","tag-paramount-global","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Netflix-Warner-Paramount-and-antitrust-Entertainment-megadeals-outcome-must-follow.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2196287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2196289,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196287\/revisions\/2196289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2196288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2196287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2196287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2196287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}