Warner Bros. Entertainment

Here with my co-founder, Daniel Frankel.

This week in our mid-week check-in with our friends at Media Play News, we're looking at, uh, that little hundred-and-eleven-billion-dollar deal to, uh, see Paramount buy Warner Brothers Discovery.

Looks like it's going through, and that means devastation almost certainly in the, in the community, and we'll talk a little bit about what that all means and what Hollywood's gonna look like.

It ain't pretty.

... reflecting.

So yeah, it's been a while since we've done a podcast.

This big Paramount Warner Brothers thing happened.

I, like everybody else, was a little surprised at the fact that the attorney generals, after raising such strident resistance for several months, just caved.

I think that's what they're going for.

So the other big news is the merger, the Paramount Warner Brothers, Paramount Skydance Warner Brothers Discovery merger that just has finally been settled.

Thanks to the help of Gavin Newsom, who really pushed it through because he knew that if Paramount moved out of Hollywood, it would completely destroy the business and it would be really bad for him.

And he'd have to deal with that.

No, I just took Dune out.

I don't think that that's going anywhere.

You don't think Dune is happening for Warner Brothers? You don't think that...

Yeah, it will.

Mike Schur is also on the pod today, the co-creator of Parks and Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and the upcoming Peacock comedy Dig with Amy Poehler.

He has many, many thoughts about Paramount winning the war to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery and what this means for writers, crew, studio executives, and pretty much everyone else who lives and works in Hollywood.

He does not hold back, so make sure you listen to the whole thing.

Okay, but first, uh, let's take a look at the fall, uh, since we are late into September, Natalie.

[laughs] That'll be a good one.

We will definitely be watching that one in this household.

Um, as for me, obviously, with, um, call it recency bias, call it, uh, the most dramatic thing that's happening to the industry right now, but I'll have my eye on what's happening with Paramount as it begins now, as it has the green light to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery.

What is this gonna mean for...

Um, and then, uh, I won't go through my entire resume, but I worked in production.

I worked at, uh, Warner Brothers.

And then in my last, my last, uh, corporate job, I moved to New York, and I was part of Turner Warner Brothers Media.

So what about the leap to now working as an intuitive with obviously a business lens? How did that change happen?

Yeah, so I, I think with many people, we reach a point in, in our careers where we're kind of looking for more, where we're like, eh- I feel like I've kinda done this.

El periódico informa que la mayor parte del círculo más cercano a Trump se mostró profundamente escéptica o se opuso rotundamente a sumarse a la lucha saudí contra los hutíes.

Paramount ha llegado a un acuerdo de resolución en una demanda antimonopolio presentada por una docena de estados de Estados Unidos, con la cual se buscaba impedir la adquisición de Warner Bros. por parte del gigante de la industria cinematográfica de Hollywood por valor de ciento once mil millones de dólares.

El Sindicato de Guionistas Writers Guild of America también ha llegado a un acuerdo en su propia demanda sobre la fusión.

Si los acuerdos obtienen la aprobación judicial, estos eliminarán los últimos grandes obstáculos para la megafusión, lo que crearía una de las mayores empresas de noticias y entretenimiento de la historia.

La entidad resultante de la fusión entre Paramount y Warner Bros. incluiría dos grandes estudios de cine, decenas de canales de cable, las divisiones informativas de las cadenas CBS y CNN y las plataformas de streaming competidoras Paramount Plus y HBO Max.

Según el periódico The New York Times, Paramount accedió en el marco del acuerdo a crear un consejo de periodistas para garantizar lo que, según la empresa, sería la independencia editorial en las cadenas CNN y CBS News, así como otras concesiones relacionadas con la producción y distribución cinematográfica.

Paramount está dirigida por David Ellison, hijo de Larry Ellison, el multimillonario fundador del gigante tecnológico Oracle.

From today's big business story, headline, Paramount states settle clearing Warner merger.

Paramount Skydance yesterday settled an antitrust lawsuit with 12 states, which were challenging its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers.

Warner Brothers Discovery, sorry, clearing the merger's last major obstacle.

The states led by California had argued that combining the two major Hollywood studios plus streaming giant HBO Max and a host of cable channels would harm competition, cut film production, and raise consumer prices.

There were also concerns about combining CNN and Paramount's CBS News division under David Ellison, an ally of President Donald Trump.