You haven’t seen too much about Paramount content this summer, and not too much all that good about Warner Brothers, either. So as which practically every outlet with even a remote connection to Universal or Greece has shamelessly dubbed “Odyssey Week” was kicking off it was practically scripted that we’d finally see the long-rumored drawing of a line in the sand dominate the headlines and practically every paywall-inducing tease out there. At least DEADLINE’s Ted Johnson was able to get the actual facts out there for free:
State attorneys general are now seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to pause Paramount‘s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, warning that the company may otherwise close the transaction as soon as July 22. That date is around the time that the European Union is expected to issue its decision on the transaction, with the U.S. Justice Department having already cleared the deal. The motion for a temporary restraining order was filed in federal court in Sacramento late on Monday. If granted, the TRO would temporarily pause the transaction as the legal proceedings take place.
In their lawsuit filed earlier in the day, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state attorneys general argued that the merger would give Paramount leverage to harm competition for wide release theatrical distribution, anticipated top grossing film releasing, and basic cable channel licensing.
Bonta is front and center in this Hail Mary, egged on by particualrly panicked and cause-centered journalists such as THE ANKLER’s Richard Rushfield as having the entire fate of the industry–especially the overachieving Warner Brothers team that Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy head that Rushfield was the de facto publicist for last year. Not to mention the plurality of Emmy voters that steadfastly got behind HBO’s portfolio and are championing Casey Bloys’ stake in the pending showdown between him and Paramount’s Cindy Ellison for head TV czar. Oh, and just about anyone at all with an opinion about the integrity of journalism itself that demands Bari Weiss’ inflated jowls and ego carried toward a pyre on a stake and praying that Mark Thompson, the genial Brit who was once astute enough to work Wordle into our daily habits remains in a position of power.
Bonta has immediately gone into overdrive to make his case, pretty much the next guest in line that doesn’t have something to do with ODYSSEY. THE TOWN’s resident yentas Matt Belloni and Lucas Shaw had him on mere hours after the TRO filing, with Belloni at least being candid enough to frame the appearance in the proper light before his site urged you to pay up for the dirt:
For months now, Rob Bonta has been the center of attention in Hollywood. For many in town, the California attorney general is seen as the last hope to stop the $110 billion merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery and the consolidation of two sprawling studio conglomerates by the Ellison family. To others he’s a political operative eager to attack a legally sound transaction to score points with Democrats in an election year.
LOS ANGELES magazine’s Nina Kremer compiled a few more of Bonta’s campaign points:
According to a press release from Bonta’s office, the merger would impact movie theaters and distributors of cable channels that rely on competition between studios to secure low prices for themselves and their audiences. After the merger, Paramount Skydance will control more than 30% of anticipated blockbuster films, and four distributors — Paramount, Disney, Universal, and Sony — will control more than 90% of them.
“In this country, no one is above the law. With this lawsuit, California and our sister states are fighting for free and fair markets, not rigged markets. America has no kings in government or our economy,” said Attorney General Bonta in a statement.
“Consolidation here not only leads to higher prices — it also leads to fewer opportunities for important stories to come to life, and fewer ways for audiences to encounter stories, ideas, and perspectives beyond their own experiences,” said Attorney General Bonta in a statement.
That’s a tremendous amount of statement creation for an otherwise sweltering Monday. I do have one question for Mr. Bonta, and especially his even more politically inclined outgoing boss Gavin Newsom, who has spent the waning days of his term capturing more credit for the creativity of his memes that his actual governance.
Have either of you weighed in on the absolute mess that the overall state of production in your state finds itself in, with three prominent production facilities–Television City, The Radford Studios and The Manhattan Beach Studios–owned by Hackman Capital Partners in financial ruin and their soundstages increasingly empty? Noticed that was once the bustling facility called Beautiful Downtown Burbank is practically a zombie lot? Chosen to do a media podcast while just about every shiny floor show that FOX. Fremantle and others still produce have moved their productions–and a sizable percentage of paid jobs–to venues like Fayetteville, Georgia and Dublin, Ireland?
Nah. That doesn’t prompt opportunistic reactions from the self-declared face of 21st century American politics that Johnson’s colleague Dade Hayes eagerly recounted yesterday afternoon:
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expressing solidarity with New York Attorney General Letitia James and 11 other state attorneys general suing to stop the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. In a statement posted to social media after 12 state AGs filed an antitrust lawsuit Monday seeking to block the $110 billion deal, Mamdani said he was “proud” that his state was among those taking a stand. ” This is not a merger that serves the public,” he said. “It would hand one company nearly a third of the movies and cable channels Americans watch, raise prices for streaming and cable, endanger the livelihoods of thousands of New York artists and entertainment workers, and threaten to shutter theaters across our city. New York’s workers helped build this industry. They should not be sacrificed for the sake of further corporate consolidation.”
Gee thanks, Zo. I probably missed when those sentiments were x-eeted as your neighboring Tri-State area states took hundreds of jobs and created tax breaks that haved turned Connecticut and now New Jersey into production destinations.
Not that the other side of the aisle is without its own saber-rattlingh rhetoric, quelle surprise. Our friend Ken Basin weighed in on his BUSINESS OF TELEVISION MAX Substack yesterday–without paywalls, mind you–to throw a bit of necessary shade on the villians who yesterday’s reporting amplified to diabolical levels:
Perhaps the editors of Semafor had Betteridge’s Law in mind when they decided to run an article on Sunday afternoon from business reporter Rohan Goswami under the title “Paramount weighs leaving California over Warner Bros. rift.” Goswami’s piece can be fairly summarized by its lede paragraph: As California tries to derail Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount CEO David Ellison’s friends and advisers have been pushing the media executive to consider shifting his business out of the state.
But being a recent Paramount senior executive who still regularly communicates with many in positions of influence, Basin is more than qualified to stick a necessary finger in this ruptured dike:
(I)s Paramount actively considering the prospect of leaving California? Maybe. The headline certainly suggests as much. But the article never actually says so, nor does it identify anything that Paramount or its leaders are actually doing to assess or prepare for a move. The reader is simply left to infer that Paramount is actively considering the prospect. This should be your first indication that this “news article” might be more laundered company-issued publicity than actual reportage.
And being the even-handed observer that he is, he reserves even more astute assessment of what might just be the real motivation behind the timing of Bonta’s actions (as well as those who have thrown their support behind him):
Rob Bonta doesn’t want to be the politician who drove not one but TWO legacy studios out of California any more than Ellison wants to be the CEO who left with them. I don’t question the sincerity of Bonta’s concerns about and objections toward the Paramount/WBD deal. But I also don’t doubt that he is acutely aware that he is playing a game with tremendous political promise and peril. If Bonta can bring Paramount to heel, he might start drawing up designs for his office in the governor’s mansion in Sacramento. If he fails to block the deal, and in the process drives Paramount and Warner Bros. to one of the 38 states (including Texas) that haven’t sued to block it, he’s more likely to be looking at floor plans for his window office as “Of Counsel” at a large corporate law firm in San Francisco.
Having Bonta follow in the footsteps of folks like Newsom and a certain failed and inexplicably aspirational presidential candidate who for the moment reserves her stunting for “date nights” at WNBA games involving teams with losing records might just be a damn good idea for a Paramount Plus series–you do remember Showtime has been reduced to a tile within the platform, right? Assuming they won’t have the wealth of far better options from HBO.
And…scene.
Until next time…