Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison intends to skip a planned Senate hearing on the entertainment company’s pending merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to attend a family member’s funeral instead.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, asked the executive to attend the Wednesday afternoon hearing as a witness and testify on the impact of the Paramount-WBD deal on Hollywood.
“As the leader of the company seeking to execute one of the largest media mergers in American history, your continued unwillingness to engage with Congressional oversight is itself a matter of public concern,” Booker wrote to Ellison on Monday. “I hope you will reconsider.”
In response, Ted Lehman, senior vice president and head of U.S. public policy and government affairs at Paramount, said Ellison will not be able to participate in the hearing because of a death in the family.
This hearing marks the second time Ellison has rebuffed Booker’s request to testify before Congress.
The senator’s prior invitation was for a hearing held by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, in February. Netflix and WBD each sent one of their top executives to testify before the panel, while Ellison was notably absent. That hearing came weeks before Paramount prevailed against Netflix in the bidding war for WBD.
Paramount questioned why Booker wanted to hold a follow-up hearing on the merger.
“Our view on the proposed merger Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery deal is quite straightforward: We believe the transaction should be reviewed on the merits,” Lehman wrote to Booker. “And on the merits, this transaction is procompetitive.”
Booker disagreed, saying the deal “threatens to give consumers fewer choices and have a chilling effect on the critical journalism Americans rely on.”
Booker’s statement made it seem that Democrats will be the ones primarily leading the hearing.
A spokesperson for Booker told the Washington Examiner that the senator invited the entire Senate Judiciary Committee, both Republicans and Democrats, along with four other Democratic lawmakers who are not members of the committee.
Creatives in the Hollywood industry argued the Paramount-WBD merger is anticompetitive when they penned an open letter against the deal this week.
“This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries—and the audiences we serve—can least afford it,” the document reads. “The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. Alarmingly, this merger would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four.”
The letter’s organizers commended California Attorney General Rob Bonta for investigating the merger. The ongoing investigation may lead to an antitrust lawsuit that Bonta files in coordination with other Democratic state attorneys general.
The open letter has gained much traction since it was released on Monday, adding more than 1,600 signatories to the roughly 1,000 people who initially signed the letter.
Paramount responded to the open letter, insisting its transaction will ensure employees “have more avenues for their work, not fewer.” Many are concerned that mass layoffs will ensue at the combined Paramount-WBD entity once the deal closes.
“We understand the concerns raised as a result of the disruptions caused to our industry by COVID, entry of big-tech, and changes in consumer behavior, but we promise this: Paramount remains deeply committed to talent, and this merger strengthens both consumer choice and competition, creating greater opportunities for creators, audiences and the communities they live and work in,” Paramount said in part.
Booker’s spotlight hearing is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Witnesses include documentary filmmaker David Borenstein, known for the Oscar-winning 2025 film Mr. Nobody Against Putin; Michael Isaac, director of legal services at the Writers Guild of America East; Katie Phang, an attorney and legal analyst; and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. The last witness is also tied to actress Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment, which backed Hollywood’s open letter.
HOLLYWOOD STARS BACK ROB BONTA’S EFFORT TO BLOCK PARAMOUNT-WBD MERGER
The hearing is similar to one held last month by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who dedicated a portion of the panel’s questions to the implications of the Paramount-WBD merger as well as broader problems facing the entertainment industry.
Bonta, who was sitting in the crowd at the March 20 spotlight hearing, vowed not to “hesitate when we think that the law is being broken” in Paramount’s case.