US Justice Department clears Paramount Skydance bid for Warner Bros Discovery
CNN and HBO ownership shift still faces state review, consolidation case moves from Washington to California
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US antitrust officials have cleared a proposed merger that would put Warner Bros Discovery under Paramount Skydance, according to the BBC and CBS. The deal is valued at $111bn, and it would combine a Hollywood studio that owns CNN and HBO with Paramount’s film and television assets under the control of Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison. The transaction is not yet final, with California among the states still reviewing the deal and weighing a potential lawsuit.
The Justice Department’s sign-off lands in an industry that has been shrinking its way through the streaming era, cutting staff and reducing production while trying to fund expensive direct-to-consumer platforms. Opponents of the merger have argued that fewer major buyers for scripts, shows and films means fewer jobs and less bargaining power for creators; more than 1,400 actors, directors and filmmakers signed an open letter opposing the tie-up, the BBC reports. California attorney general Rob Bonta has previously warned that another round of consolidation could limit competition in entertainment and raise costs for audiences, and he has said his office would decide whether to take formal action.
The politics of the approval are difficult to separate from the corporate structure. Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, a prominent donor to Donald Trump, and the sale has attracted scrutiny over whether ownership changes could reshape news and entertainment decision-making, particularly at CNN. Business Insider notes the clearance as a key milestone but emphasizes that state-level review remains a live risk, and it describes the deal’s progress as “whiplash-y,” echoing comments attributed to Warner Bros Discovery chief executive David Zaslav in leaked audio.
For Washington, the approval also signals how narrow federal competition enforcement can become when the argument is framed as rescuing legacy media from newer rivals. Paramount has been competing with Netflix for years, and streaming scale has become the industry’s standard justification for mergers that reduce the number of independent studios. The result is that the same market that once had multiple bidders for talent and programming increasingly runs through a handful of conglomerates, each with its own debt load, layoffs and cost controls.
The next concrete step is likely to come from Sacramento rather than Washington. A merger that federal prosecutors have waved through can still be tied up by state litigation, and California has not said whether it will sue.