Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Fee, has instructed CNBC that Paramount’s bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery is “cleaner” than Netflix’s, including he anticipated it to be accredited “fairly rapidly.”
“There’s a number of issues when Netflix was the potential purchaser there,” Carr mentioned on the sidelines of the Cell World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday. “That exact mixture raised a number of competitors issues.”
Paramount Skydance put in a revised supply to purchase everything of WBD final week at $31 per share, up from $30 per share, which the WBD board deemed superior to an current Netflix proposal.
Netflix had been set to purchase the media big’s studio and streaming companies for $27.75 per share, however mentioned this was “now not financially engaging” in mild of Paramount’s supply.
Carr spoke with CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal in a wide-ranging dialogue in regards to the WBD-Paramount merger, which requires regulators’ sign-off.
Carr instructed CNBC that Netflix “would have a really tough path” getting regulatory approval, including that Paramount’s was “rather a lot cleaner, doesn’t elevate in any respect the identical varieties of issues.”
“I feel there’s some actual client advantages that may emerge from it,” he added.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testifies through the Home Power and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Know-how listening to titled “Oversight of the Federal Communications Fee,” in Rayburn constructing on Wednesday, January 14, 2026.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Name, Inc. | Getty Photographs
Each offers raised antitrust questions across the U.S. theatrical business, prompting issues over potential job losses or smaller movie slates in Hollywood. Netflix’s proposed mixture additionally spurred questions round streaming dominance, as it will have introduced collectively two of the preferred streaming companies in Netflix and WBD’s HBO Max.
On Monday, Paramount mentioned it deliberate to launch not less than 30 movies yearly, or 15 per studio. Executives additionally mentioned it will mix its streaming service Paramount+ with HBO Max into one service as soon as the transaction was full.
It is unclear what the regulatory course of for Paramount and WBD will entail. The FCC usually evaluations offers that embrace one of many nation’s broadcasts, together with Paramount’s CBS, and backed Paramount’s merger with Skydance final 12 months.
“If there’s any FCC position in any respect, it’s going to be a fairly minimal position. And I feel it is a whole lot, and I feel it ought to get via fairly rapidly,” Carr added.
In contrast to Netflix’s proposed deal, Paramount’s bid encompasses WBD’s pay TV networks, equivalent to CNN, TBS and TNT.
Paramount has provided a $7 billion breakup payment if the deal does not achieve regulatory clearance. It additionally already paid the $2.8 billion breakup payment that WBD owed to Netflix as a result of that deal was canceled.
‘Meaningfully simpler’
A few of the issues round a Netflix-WBD deal included larger client costs and lowered competitors.
U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned in December that the potential deal “could possibly be an issue” due to the elevated market share it will give Netflix. He walked again these feedback a month later, saying the deal can be solely reviewed by the Division of Justice.
In an announcement, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts known as the Paramount and WBD merger “an antitrust catastrophe threatening larger costs and fewer decisions for American households.”
Analysts from funding financial institution Raymond James mentioned final week {that a} Paramount-WBD deal was “meaningfully simpler” than the Netflix deal.
“There are new challenges with this deal round information, cable networks, worldwide linear networks, and many others., however we nonetheless really feel the WBD/PSKY deal is extra palatable all-in,” the analysts wrote.
“And, notably following the response to the WBD/NFLX settlement, we imagine PSKY’s political standing with the present U.S. administration is far stronger than Netflix’s.”
Nevertheless, Paren Knadjian, a companion at advisory agency EisnerAmper, mentioned final week that the Paramount-WBD deal is not essentially a achieved deal, with the trail ahead trying extra nuanced.
The Netflix-WBD deal targeted totally on library content material, however Paramount’s deal is a “horizontal consolidation” between cable TV, sports activities, streaming and information, he mentioned.
“I feel the most important factor we’ll deal with is the focus of mental property underneath one roof,” Knadjian instructed CNBC. “What energy does that give this new entity when it comes to the flexibility to cost extra?”
“The regulatory strain, the political strain, these are the issues that may definitely delay the deal and can make it extra difficult, and I feel there’s going to must be important concessions for it to undergo,” Knadjian added.
There’s additionally the excellent query of whether or not the Committee on International Funding in the US would discover challenge with the construction of the deal. Paramount’s supply included roughly $24 billion from Gulf state sovereign wealth funds.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
