British regulator may challenge Paramount takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery

Britain’s civilization curate whitethorn situation Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — presenting a imaginable speed-bump to David Ellison’s program to wrapper up his $111-billion woody by September.

Earlier this month, Paramount secured the U.S. Justice Department’s blessing to bargain the Warner assets, which see CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network, Animal Planet and the Warner Bros. movie and TV studios successful Burbank.

Paramount besides indispensable triumph the support of British and European regulators, who are known for drilling profoundly into media matters due to the fact that of their power connected society.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority took a preliminary measurement this period by opening an probe into Ellison’s projected merger.

On Tuesday, Lisa Nandy, Britain’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, notified Parliament that she was inclined to intervene successful the blockbuster deal.

In a written statement, Nandy cited her quality to measurement successful connected “public involvement grounds,” owed to concerns astir maintaining a competitory media marketplace successful Britain.

“The UK’s determination to intervene successful the Paramount–WBD woody confirms what we’ve been saying for months. The existent regulatory hazard was ne'er successful the US — it’s successful Europe,” Forrester VP Research Director Mike Proulx said Tuesday successful a statement.

While Nandy cautioned she has not made “a last determination connected involution astatine this stage,” she has invited Paramount and Warner Bros. to respond to her concerns by July 6.

June 2026 photograph of Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy arriving astatine Downing Street for the play Government furniture gathering successful London.

(Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)

Paramount did not connection contiguous comment.

The institution owns CBS News, children’s transmission Nickelodeon and Channel 5, 1 of the largest over-the-air tv broadcasters successful the United Kingdom.

Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN, Cartoon Network and TNT Sports, which broadcasts the Olympics, Champions League and Premier League shot matches.

“I americium conscious that the projected acquisition is planetary successful nature,” Nandy wrote successful her statement. “In reaching this decision, my absorption has been, and volition remain, connected the UK nationalist involvement and the scope of services disposable to UK audiences, including Channel 5, TNT Sports, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and CNN International, arsenic good arsenic Paramount+ and HBO Max.”

If Nandy decides to intervene, the Office of Communications, known arsenic Ofcom, would motorboat an appraisal of the deal. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority besides would find however the merger mightiness reshape the competitory landscape.

Teams from the 2 companies person been huddling for months to program for the melding of the 2 operations arsenic soon arsenic Paramount receives each of its regulatory approvals.

Australia, New Zealand, China, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Serbia, France and Italy person already fixed their approvals to the deal.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is readying to lend $10 cardinal to assistance the billionaire Ellison household propulsion disconnected the merger, which would marque the Saudi royal household a significant, though passive, equity owner. In addition, the royal families of Qatar and Abu Dhabi person agreed to each lend $7 cardinal successful equity financing.

The Federal Communications Commission indispensable measure the overseas ownership stakes owed to Paramount’s holding of CBS broadcast licenses. U.S. antitrust regulators already person concluded the operation would not interruption national anticompetition laws.

Approval had been expected due to the fact that President Trump — who has affable ties with Ellison and his father, tech billionaire Larry Ellison — favors the deal.

Trump has been anxious for changes astatine CNN.

The U.S. authorities stopped abbreviated of asking Paramount to marque concessions oregon divestitures. Many expect that Paramount whitethorn person to reconfigure its children’s tv holdings overseas owed to the projected operation of 2 ample players — Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

Nandy suggested that Britain besides should scrutinize the interaction of combining 2 large streaming services HBO Max, a Warner property, with Paramount+.

HBO programming, including “Game of Thrones,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Succession,” has agelong been fashionable successful Britain.

A conjugation of authorities attorneys general, led by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, besides is expected to situation the deal, successful part, owed to concerns astir quality media consolidation. Bonta’s bureau has said the substance remains nether review.

Opposition to the woody has been gathering successful the U.S. for months. A radical of Hollywood activists — led by actors Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo — person spearheaded a “block the merger” run that present has enactment from much than 5,000 amusement workers.

The group’s unfastened missive calls connected Bonta to instrumentality enactment to thwart the Ellison enlargement effort. Paramount’s Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim has blasted the campaign, calling it “fear-mongering” and a partisan distortion of antitrust law.

Forrester’s Proulx noted differences successful attitudes toward the woody among the assorted constituencies.

“For US consumers, this merger has go a proxy combat astir governmental power and power of media,” Proulx said. “In the UK, it’s being treated arsenic a structural contention contented wherever regulators, not consumers, volition determine however this woody plays retired and however agelong it takes.”