By Tom Joyce | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – Warner Bros. Discovery has put itself up for sale, and the Trump administration is showing signs of support for a potential merger with Paramount Skydance while raising concerns about Big Tech or Comcast taking control of one of Hollywood’s most influential studios.
Warner Bros. Discovery owns the Warner Bros. studio and cable brands, including CNN, HBO, and the Discovery Channel. Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS, recently made several offers to buy the company. However, Warner executives are waiting for competing bids. Netflix, Comcast, and Amazon are among the potential bidders, reports say.
Conservatives warn that a sale to Netflix or Comcast would further concentrate power in the media industry.
Former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colorado, said mergers with Big Tech often lead to fewer competitors and less diversity of viewpoints, and that federal regulators should tread carefully.
“No doubt, Big Tech will marshal their resources to fight authorities — as they have before — but regulators can, and should, use this moment to carefully examine mergers in the entertainment industry that will have an impact on free speech,” he wrote in a Newsmax column.
Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation, said competition helps preserve balance in news and entertainment.
“But consumers also need media to end its leftward slant on news and entertainment, and Paramount Skydance intends to correct biases in its media properties,” he wrote in a column for the Daily Caller. “Viacom stagnated for decades because of family and corporate infighting, but the newly invigorated Paramount Skydance wants to correct the leftward leanings of some of their properties like CBS News and 60 Minutes. There would certainly be a benefit to the public in that, as would extending those changes to CNN.”
Analysts note the Trump administration has previously criticized Comcast and NBC for bias in its political coverage.
In 2023, Trump pledged to investigate NBC for “knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage.” More recently, he posted that Comcast and its chairman, Brian Roberts, were “a disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting.”
Craig Moffett of Moffett Nathanson said a successful Comcast bid is “nearly unthinkable.”
“Given past commentary against all-things-Comcast from both the White House and the FCC over the past year, a successful Comcast acquisition of almost anything seems nearly unthinkable,” he told Deadline.
Additionally, Blair Levin of New Street Research told CNBC that “it is almost certain that the Trump DOJ would not allow [Comcast] to buy WBD and the result would be decided in court.”
Netflix may also face skepticism. Company chairman Reed Hastings is a longtime Democratic donor, and Netflix employees sent 98% of their political donations to Democrats in 2020. Analysts warn that a merger with Warner Bros. would make Netflix more than twice the size of its nearest competitor.
By contrast, Paramount’s ties with the Trump administration may work in its favor.
“[Paramount Skydance] got on Trump’s good side to get the Paramount deal closed so there’s still some of that good will that they could use … Not everyone has that good will,” Raymond James analyst Brent Penter told BBC.