Netflix-Warner Bros. deal: Regulatory questions emerge

The Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery deal got here collectively rapidly — however its path to regulatory approval will not be so speedy.

Netflix surprised the media trade on Friday when it introduced its proposed $72 billion deal to amass the long-lasting Warner Bros. movie studio and streaming service HBO Max. The mixture brings collectively two of the most well-liked streaming platforms within the enterprise. Netflix reported 300 million world subscribers as of late 2024, the final time it reported the metric. HBO Max had 128 million prospects as of Sept. 30.

Netflix at present claims 46% of cellular app month-to-month lively customers in world streaming, in accordance with information from market intelligence agency Sensor Tower. Mixed with HBO Max, that share would rise to 56%, it discovered.

“This deal cements Netflix’s place because the premier streaming service for unique content material,” in accordance with a analysis word from analysts at William Blair on Friday.

The dimensions of the deal makes it ripe for scrutiny, from each trade insiders and U.S. lawmakers.

The Trump administration is viewing the merger with “heavy skepticism,” CNBC reported Friday, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren has already referred to as for an antitrust evaluation.

“This deal seems to be like an anti-monopoly nightmare. A Netflix-Warner Bros. would create one huge media large with management of near half of the streaming market — threatening to pressure People into increased subscription costs and fewer decisions over what and the way they watch, whereas placing American staff in danger,” Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, mentioned in an announcement.

The merger would additionally give Netflix management over the famed Warner Bros. movie studio, additional consolidating the cinematic area and elevating issues that the quantity or typical windowing of well-liked releases might shrink.

It is typical within the days and weeks following a deal announcement of this scale for curiosity teams, politicians and company rivals to name foul on antitrust grounds.

The Division of Justice is most probably to evaluation the deal, because it has different media mergers up to now, and it might take a while. DOJ opinions can take wherever from months to greater than a yr.

Netflix mentioned Friday it expects the transaction to shut in 12 to 18 months, after Warner Bros. Discovery spins out its portfolio of cable networks into Discovery International.

Netflix executives on Friday mentioned they have been “extremely assured” the deal would win regulatory approval.

“You already know, this deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it is pro-creator, it is pro-growth,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos mentioned throughout an investor name following the acquisition announcement.

“Our plans listed here are to work actually carefully with all the suitable governments and regulators, however [we’re] actually assured that we’ll get all the required approvals that we’d like,” Sarandos added.

As a part of the deal, Netflix has agreed to pay a $5.8 billion breakup price to Warner Bros. Discovery if the deal have been to get blocked by the federal government.

Netflix’s bid gained out over competing gives from Paramount Skydance and Comcast.

Analysts at Deutsche Financial institution and William Blair have been at the least minimally satisfied Friday of the potential for the deal to undergo.

“A merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and any of the three bidders would most likely succeed, even when the DOJ have been to sue to dam a proposed mixture,” Deutsche Financial institution analysts wrote in a word on Friday, citing insights from a Division of Justice veteran who the analysts mentioned “doesn’t see any important antitrust issues with any of the three eventualities.”

“Nevertheless … we do not know the entire detailed information that might be collected and analyzed by the DOJ, nor do we all know who the choose listening to the case might be, and each of those elements can have an effect on the end result,” the Deutsche Financial institution analysts famous.

Paramount, for its half, has been fanning the flames.

Paramount’s legal professionals despatched a letter to Warner Bros. Discovery this week, first reported by CNBC, through which it argued the sale course of had been rigged in Netflix’s route. The Wall Road Journal reported that in a separate letter, Paramount mentioned a Netflix transaction would probably “by no means shut” due to regulatory headwinds.

Paramount was the one bidder seeking to purchase WBD’s huge portfolio of pay-TV networks — and it is unlikely to stroll away from the method quietly.

Wall Road anticipated President Donald Trump’s second time period to usher in a windfall of dealmaking. Nevertheless, financial uncertainty has slowed the method for some firms, and regulatory holdups have performed an even bigger function than anticipated.

“Underneath Donald Trump, the antitrust evaluation course of has additionally change into a cesspool of political favoritism and corruption,” Warren mentioned in Friday’s assertion. “The Justice Division should implement our nation’s anti-monopoly legal guidelines pretty and transparently — not use the Warner Bros. deal evaluation to ask influence-peddling and bribery.”

Paramount’s merger with Skydance was left in limbo for greater than a yr earlier than it lastly gained federal approval in July.

The Federal Communications Fee (which is unlikely to evaluation the Netflix-WBD tie-up because it would not contain a broadcaster) signed off on the $8 billion merger shortly after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to Trump to settle a lawsuit over the modifying of a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount had additionally ended its variety, fairness and inclusion insurance policies earlier within the yr after the FCC mentioned it will examine the corporate over its DEI applications.

In September, the newly mixed Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison, set its sights on Warner Bros. Discovery. The corporate is now contemplating whether or not to take a hostile bid straight to WBD shareholders and attempt to unseat Netflix because the would-be purchaser, CNBC reported Friday.

Ellison’s billionaire father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is understood to be shut with Trump.

The argument for whether or not to clear Netflix’s proposed takeover of Warner Bros. would probably come right down to questions round streaming — first, on pricing for customers, and second, on how one can outline Netflix’s viewers.

The pricing of streaming subscriptions has risen throughout the board in recent times. In 2022 Netflix instituted a less expensive, ad-supported mannequin after years of resistance in an effort to beckon extra prospects. The next yr, Disney adopted with its personal more-affordable plan.

Netflix is used to upending the legacy media trade. The corporate ended its DVD leases enterprise in 2023 and went all in on streaming. It is since discovered huge scale and has taken over the zeitgeist with unique sequence like “Squid Recreation,” “Wednesday,” “Stranger Issues,” and “Bridgerton.”

Its maverick strategy to media and its broadening foothold within the trade could also be its saving grace within the eyes of regulators.

“My expectation on the regulatory facet is Netflix goes to advocate and argue with their advisors for a really expansive definition of what their market is … in order that would come with broadcast, cable, subscription and ad-supported streaming,” mentioned mentioned Jeff Goldstein, a companion and managing director at AlixPartners, and co-lead of the U.S. Media group.

“And actually, actually, actually importantly, that would come with YouTube,” he mentioned.

YouTube has come to dominate the trade in relation to viewership. Nielsen as soon as once more reported in October than YouTube had the biggest share of TV utilization, with Netflix in sixth place and Warner Bros. Discovery in seventh place. Conventional media firms with linear networks — Disney, NBCUniversal, Fox and Paramount — stuffed the spots in between.

Critics of the deal will outline Netflix’s attain extra narrowly to attempt to exhibit outsized dominance, mentioned Goldstein.

“I imagine that streaming shouldn’t be a class. Tv viewership is a class … you understand, eyeballs may be a class,” media trade titan John Malone informed CNBC in November when requested about antitrust questions surrounding the WBD sale course of.

“But when you are going to broaden the class to that, you bought to soak up YouTube and Fb and the social networks, TikTok,” he mentioned. “I imply, that is actually the query, is streaming a class? … Are studios a class … and is that going to get checked out onerous? These regulatory issues are a bit of bit tough to foretell.”

— CNBC’s Julia Boorstin contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Comcast is the mum or dad firm of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would change into the brand new mum or dad firm of CNBC upon Comcast’s deliberate spinoff of Versant.