A coalition of 12 states led by California sued Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery today to block their planned $111 billion merger, a deal the Trump administration approved last month.
The case puts state attorneys general in direct conflict with a federal approval that cleared the way for one of the largest media combinations in recent memory. The deal would join two major movie studios and put Paramount+ and HBO Max under the same corporate roof.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the states believe the transaction violates antitrust law. In a statement, Bonta said combining the companies would mean “higher prices, lower quality, and less content” for film and television, with harm reaching movie theaters, basic cable distributors and viewers.
The states’ theory is straightforward: fewer large entertainment companies means less pressure to compete over licensing, theatrical releases, cable carriage and streaming subscriptions. Bonta’s office framed the merger as a problem for both the companies that distribute entertainment and the people who pay to watch it.
A fight over who controls movies and streaming
Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery are not small players being folded into a niche service. The proposed merger would combine two of the largest movie studios. It would also merge Paramount’s streaming service, Paramount+, with HBO Max, Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship streaming product.
That matters because studios now sell the same underlying goods through several channels: theaters, cable bundles and streaming apps. A combined company would control more of that supply at once. The states say that shift would give the merged company more leverage over distributors and customers.
The challenged deal followed an earlier path that would have sent parts of Warner Bros. Discovery elsewhere. Netflix previously had an agreement to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and movie studio businesses. Paramount later prevailed with a hostile takeover bid, helped by support from the Trump administration.
The lawsuit does not undo the federal approval by itself. It opens another front, with state enforcers asking a court to stop the companies from closing the transaction despite the administration’s green light.
The companies now face a familiar media-industry argument in a sharper form: executives want scale to compete in streaming, while antitrust enforcers say consolidation can leave consumers and distributors with fewer choices and worse terms. The states’ complaint, as described by Bonta, lands squarely on the latter side.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
