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Title: Paramount Skydance 'Emerges Victorious', Finally Wins Settlement for
Warner Bros Takeover

Link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/0...

Paramount Skydance just "emerged victorious" reports Reuters, "from a legal
battle over its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery" that will
"dramatically concentrate power across Hollywood's film, TV, streaming and
news businesses." The victory comes "after settling with a California-led
group of US states and a Hollywood writers union, paving the way for one of
the largest media mergers in history." Paramount agreed to abide by temporary
film quotas and a news oversight committee, avoiding a forced sale of cable
assets such as CNN or any of its lucrative film franchises... The Writers
Guild of America settled its parallel case against Paramount, while saying it
still believes the deal will damage the industry. The states' settlement
forced the union to "contend with the reality of forging ahead alone, with no
backing from government enforcers" in a complex case that would have cost
millions of dollars... Paramount promised in the state settlement to bring
more film production to the US - spending at least $300 million more each
year in domestic production - and adhere to US theatrical release quotas for
five years. The company will produce 30 movies in each of the first two years
of the deal, and 32 movies in each of the following three years, Bonta said.
Each year, at least four of those films must be independent films and at
least 20% must be blockbusters. If it falls below that threshold, it will pay
$30 million per film, most of it into funds to support workers. Paramount
also promised not to raise rates on theater operators for three years. The
article notes that California attorney general Rob Bonta still said "I don't
think these two companies should merge" at a press conference announcing the
settlement, "but that's not something that we are focused on with our
resolution here." He call their agreement "a strong antitrust outcome." And
Politico notes that Bonta acknowledged at the press conference that "Some of
you who may be watching this may have wanted a different outcome. I
understand that." But he argued he'd reached a settlement capable of
"providing more film production that protects Hollywood workers and their
livelihoods, that places guardrails allowing for robust cable negotiations,
that protects competition and creates more choice for consumers about what
this merger could mean for the industry." It "resolves the antitrust concerns
at the heart of our lawsuit against the company and Warner Brothers," he
said... The agreement came as a disappointment to opponents of the
transaction, including the Block the Merger Coalition, which cast the
settlement as a sweetheart deal for Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison
and his father, Oracle Co-Founder Larry Ellison, who is financially
backstopping the acquisition. "This is a bad deal for the future of film,
entertainment, independent journalism, and a strong democracy in this
country," the coalition said in a statement. "We are disappointed and angry
that the interests of average Americans have been trampled to benefit
oligarch billionaires....." The $111 billion deal allows Paramount to combine
its namesake streaming service with HBO Max, creating a new offering with
about 200 million subscribers. That would help Paramount compete against
companies such as Netflix, which boasts more than 325 million subscribers
worldwide.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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