Paramount Skydance blasts Netflix over Warner Bros. Discovery merger fight

Paramount Skydance moved to cast Netflix as a political operator, not just a rival, accusing the streamer of trying to “poison regulators and other stakeholders” against Paramount’s $110 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. The clash has become a fight over who gets to define consumer harm in streaming, and whether bigger Hollywood combinations create competition or choke it off.

In a June 5 letter to lawyers in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim said Netflix’s response was a “panic-level response” that showed how seriously Netflix views Paramount as a competitor. Netflix fired back in a terse statement: “These claims from Paramount Skydance are absurd.” The company said it had walked away from the bidding war months ago and that regulators, not rivals, should decide whether the merger serves the public interest.

Paramount is pressing the case that a combined company would bring “new competitive energy” to a market dominated by giant streamers and studios. Delrahim argued that the deal would force Amazon MGM, Disney, Universal, Sony, Lionsgate and A24 to step up content creation, a pitch aimed squarely at regulators weighing whether the transaction would expand competition or consolidate power. The deal would combine two major Hollywood studios, along with Paramount+ and HBO Max, into a single entertainment heavyweight.

The dispute also sharpened labor concerns that have shadowed the merger from the start. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which says it represents nearly 15,000 rank-and-file Motion Picture Teamsters and 1.3 million members overall, warned in a March filing that the merger posed a “direct threat” to film and television workers nationwide. The union urged the DOJ to block the deal unless enforceable safeguards protected domestic production and jobs, and it pointed to Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox assets as a warning about layoffs and canceled projects. Paramount rejected that argument, saying organized labor would benefit from greater competitive pressure and more content spending.

The transaction cleared one major hurdle when Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved it on April 23, after Paramount and WBD signed their agreement on February 27 following a bidding war in which Netflix walked away. But the regulatory fight is widening. State attorneys general have been preparing a lawsuit to block the deal, and U.K. regulators opened a formal investigation on June 9. The battle now reaches beyond one merger, testing whether scale will be treated as a threat or a remedy in the streaming era.