At the end of February, it was announced that the Paramount Skydance Corporation (Paramount) had reached a deal to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery (Warner Brothers, or WBD).
The deal was valued at approximately $31 per share, which works out to about $110 billion in total.
Netflix and Paramount had previously been engaged in a ‘bidding war’ to buy Warner Brothers. However, after Paramount’s $110 billion offer, Netflix dropped out because they decided they were unable to match the offer.
With the deal, Paramount acquires Warner Bros. Studios, as well as cable assets like TBS, TNT, and CNN, and streaming assets like HBO Max, which will likely become integrated with the Paramount+ platform.
This consolidation of TV and streaming comes at a time when so much of the media is already owned by large conglomerates. AP US History teacher Kaveh Dilmaghani says that the situation holds “echoes of the Gilded Age” — an era where the United States’ economy was dominated by large monopoly corporations.
The merger creates other problems as well, especially for consumers. Streaming prices are expected to increase with the merger of Paramount+ and HBO Max. In addition, many consumers are “concerned about the quality of media”, according to Dilmaghani.
Film as Literature teacher Hilary Ledford shared similar concerns. She believes that diversity in studios helps more different and creative ideas get made into movies. With consolidation, those creative ideas may not come to light, and movies could become more “generic”.
To help support creative ideas, Ledford stated that larger companies should try to “guarantee the viewers that they’re continuing to support smaller studios”.
While Paramount and Warner Brothers have reached an agreement, the deal is not done yet. There are still several regulatory hurdles, both in the US and abroad, that must be passed through before the merger is official. This process will likely take months, if not years.
According to Dilmaghani, the situation is “Certainly very interesting… We’ll see where it takes us.”
