Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance

[domino harvey]

Really glad WA sat on all the movies people actually want for over a decade now. I’ll give you one guess what one of the first redundancies cut is going to be

[beamish14]

Really glad WA sat on all the movies people actually want for over a decade now. I’ll give you one guess what one of the first redundancies cut is going to be

Say goodbye to repertory screenings and new celluloid prints, too.

[dwk]

Cliff MacMillan seemed frustrated with Paramount in that YouTube interview he did last week, and was very open about how much he was against this deal. Which makes me think this is also going to be bad for boutiques licensing from ParaBrothers.

[domino harvey]

Disney already showed you the future when they ate Fox and more or less erased the entire studio era legacy of one of the two or three most important studios of the classic era, wiping out nearly all home video releases. They’re just gone. Paramount releases and licenses movies now, sure, but if Disney doesn’t see the money in it I don’t know why anyone thinks it will keep doing so now that they too are a mega studio

[Drucker]

I honestly have no idea what the right path here is.

As a fan of film, I'm dismayed about what this will obviously mean for the lack of resources allocated to library titles, preservation, and of course, home video releases. As someone left leaning politically, it's abhorrent the way people so clearly in the tank for Trump, including his Middle Eastern handlers, will be able to control such major news outlets in the country. It's all a very bad outcome.

But, devil's advocate here, the die is long cast on legacy media, certainly as it pertains to television. And I'm not sure what other outcome there is, long-term, if we're being realistic. The cable and network TV business printed money for years, and that's just not happening any more. The economic model that powered television (syndication, DVD sales) has been permanently upended by streaming services and, crucially, social media/youtube/tiktok. The eyeballs (supply) for TV is dwindling and shrinking every year. Maybe the film industry is recovering more than COVID lows, but that seems like a devil in the details situation (huge blockbusters, children's films, superhero films). There is no more middle. Hell, surprising breakouts

What I'm trying to say is, constituted as they are, with a combination film and TV studio/cable business: what else could the outcome for WBD be?

[domino harvey]

Not sell itself?

[Finch]

One of the concessions was this:

No Forced Breakups: Avoided mandated divestments or sales of core cable/film assets.

I hope this means TCM and WAC are safe.

[Drucker]

Not sell itself?

I wish that was happening. But I think that with assets this valuable in an industry that is declining is unfortunately going to be ripe for acquisition. I mean that's the whole reason the CEO is there.

My perspective is informed by working in this very industry for 15 years. It's just the reality of how these things are discussed within the office. (Sorry to sound so corporate) but if your core assets are declining in edit: capacity (I initially used the word 'value')every year, in a high visibility public company like this, things are going to change. And if the CEO won't enact those changes, he'll be tossed and someone else will be implemented.

[pistolwink]

Somebody better push Newsom on this if he ends up running next year. Unless of course Harris decides to run in which case he said he would not compete with her. Not that it matters, neither of them will be the nominee.

Newsom won’t make it to the final 5 of the Democratic nominees He’ll spend the remainder of his career on Fortune 500 boards and making his own bullshit nonprofits

The pattern with Newsom, for almost everything, is to talk a decent game and then retreat. In some cases he's accidentally spoken the truth (Israel as an apartheid state) and had to walk it back. In other cases it seems he never had the intention of holding the monied to account and was just paying lip service to populist views (AI regulation, this Paramount thing).

I don't think the Democratic primary electorate has the stomach for someone quite as oily as Newsom but I've been unpleasantly surprised before.

[The Narrator Returns]

Right after this he vetoed a bill protecting trans health-care providers from extradition by other states. True scum of the earth, which unfortunately describes a majority of his party right now.

[Lowry_Sam]

In other cases it seems he never had the intention of holding the monied to account and was just paying lip service to populist views (AI regulation, this Paramount thing).

Newsom is in the pockets of both the tech and entertainment industries (and PG & E). If we ever get a Propublica news story on his pay-to-play schemes like we currently are with Susan Collins, remains to be seen. It’s been obvious for a long time that he’s always been a grifter just like the rest of them and that all his pronouncements of caring about one thing or another are just performances for cover.

I don't think the Democratic primary electorate has the stomach for someone quite as oily as Newsom but I've been unpleasantly surprised before.

People said the same about the American people & Trump. Newsom has some of the same traits as Trump, both are narcissists who scam people by their slick speeches & even share some of the same hand gestures (particularly the accordion one). But it’s not about the people, it’s about the oligarchs. If Elon & the Ellisons want to replace Trump with Newsom, they’ll find a way. The American people being as passive as they are will consign themselves to whatever tool the oligarchs tell them is their acceptable candidate.

& with that perhaps we take the Newsom discussion to the politics thread?

[hearthesilence]

Don't count on the oversight board doing jackshit.

The settlement also creates an independent monitoring trustee with broad authority over film production and cable-licensing, but the trustee shall have "no role or authority relating to the Combined Entity's news operations."

"That's a remarkable carveout," said Jonathan Peters, a media law professor at the University of Georgia.

He said the settlement is not without legal merit because states have the power to enforce it in federal court, but there is a "significant enforcement gap" regarding editorial independence.

The concerns also are fueled by lawmakers' criticism of Ellison for tailoring news coverage at Paramount-owned CBS News to favor President Donald Trump. Critics fear how he would manage Warner's CNN once it comes under his ownership.

There is also no provision that requires the board's findings and decisions to be made public.

The companies said the board would also resolve internal disputes over reporting bias and disputes between news staff and management at CNN and CBS.

Board members will serve three-year terms and are protected against arbitrary dismissal by a "good cause" removal standard, though the company retains exclusive authority to fill all vacancies.

"It's unclear how the attorneys general or courts can constitutionally hold Paramount accountable for the board's actions or inaction without themselves interfering in content," said Seth Stern, a media lawyer and chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

The idea of an independent oversight board is not new. When Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought the Wall Street Journal in 2007, it agreed to establish a special committee to protect the objectivity and independence of its publications.

The group is meant to guard against corporate interference and it must approve changes to the Journal's top editors, but it does not assess or comment on editorial coverage.

Even so, it is considered powerless.

"When Murdoch wanted to install his own loyal lieutenant as top editor in 2008, he just did it, the board was left in the dust," Bill Grueskin, a faculty member at Columbia Journalism School and former deputy managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, said in an emailed response.

Grueskin sees little difference in Ellison's concessions to editorial independence.

"The owner calls the shots," he said. "The responsibilities and rights of Ellison's board are exceptionally vague.”

And what's this? Why, this deal keeps getting better and better!

[FlickeringWindow]

The Acquisition and Merging of Warner Bros. Discovery as Performed by the Ellison Family of Paramount Skydance Corporation Under the Direction of Elon Musk

[Lowry_Sam]

So that's where our DOGE dollars went, to a slush fund to buy out all media. I wouldn't be surprised if TrumpTV is already broadcasting from the basement of CNN. Maybe that's why Donald hates Kaitlan Collins so much...he wants her office.

[Lowry_Sam]

Comments on The Extras' Youtube channel:

I'm so excited about this merger

maybe we can finally get a proper Blu-ray of Mr. Bug Goes to Town through the Paramount Warner Archive (that's my predicted future name) and maybe Paramount can up their 4K game a bit (i'm looking at you Saturday Night Fever)

[bad future]

lololol I am glad to know that when the rest of us are just sad about the Warner Archive and TCM being shuttered at least one person will be specifically sad that's happening instead of a proper Mr. Bug Goes To Town blu-ray. Were I to try to satirize this kind of blinkered home video collector I don't think I could ever do better than the average youtube commenter's unguarded airing of their genuine hopes and dreams