President Donald Trump voiced skepticism over Netflix’s blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which was announced last week.
“That’s got to go through a process. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
“Netflix is a great company. … They have a very big market share. And when they have Warner Bros., that market share goes up a lot. So, I don’t know. That’s gonna be for some economists to tell, and I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But it is a big market share, no question about it. Could be a problem,” he added.
Netflix said on Friday it would purchase Warner Bros. Discovery’s film studio, HBO, and the streaming service HBO Max, along with decades of films and shows in the Warner Bros. Pictures archive for over $82 billion, if the deal is approved. For now, the HBO Max and Netflix streaming services will remain separate, and TV channels CNN and TNT will not be included.
Netflix won over Warner Bros. against competitors Paramount and Comcast. David Ellison, Trump ally Larry Ellison’s son and the head of Paramount, lost out to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Paramount made the case that the deal would likely not be approved by regulators if it involved Netflix.
“The simple truth is that a deal with Netflix as the buyer likely will never close … Netflix is the only remaining Big Tech company that has not faced serious global antitrust enforcement, but attempting to acquire the WBD assets will change that,” the company’s attorneys wrote in a letter.
The deal will likely face scrutiny from the Justice Department’s antitrust division, but probably not from the Federal Communications Commission, because neither company owns broadcast stations. FCC head Brendan Carr previously told the Guardian that he doubted the agency would get involved if Paramount acquired Warner Bros.
“I’d be very surprised if there was an FCC role at all in that type of transaction,” Carr said, adding that he was “not focused on the rumor mills around those transactions.”
The deal will also likely require approval from the European Commission and regulators, among others.
Sarandos met with Trump in November about the deal and reportedly left feeling good that Netflix wouldn’t face pushback from the White House. Trump told him that Warner Bros. should sell to the highest bidder, Bloomberg reported.
Trump confirmed his past meeting with Sarandos on Sunday. “I met with Ted. I think he’s fantastic. I think, in the history of Hollywood, there’s almost nothing like what he’s done,” Trump said.
The Trump administration approved the Paramount Global merger with film studio Skydance in July after Paramount paid Trump’s presidential library $16 million over CBS News’s allegedly deceptively edited interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Paramount also agreed to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs after talks with the FCC.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) expressed disagreement Sunday with Trump’s involvement in the merger.
“Donald Trump said ‘he’ll ‘be involved in’ deciding if Netflix can buy Warner Bros. Is that an open invite for CEOs to curry favor with Trump in exchange for merger approvals? It should be an independent decision by the Department of Justice based on the law and facts,” she wrote on X.
NETFLIX TO ACQUIRE WARNER BROS. IN BLOCKBUSTER ENTERTAINMENT DEAL
If the deal goes through, there’s concern that Netflix will try to shift Warner Bros. operations to a home audience against cinemas. Sarandos told investors that it plans to maintain Warner Bros. operations and “build on its strengths, including theatrical releases for films.”
Cinema United, a trade association for cinema owners, called the merger “an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business.”