The United Kingdom has approved Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal valued at roughly $111 billion. The decision follows a review by British authorities of both the competition and public interest implications of the merger, which concluded there were no grounds to intervene.
The Competition and Markets Authority found that the merger does not raise competition concerns requiring further action, while Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy also declined to intervene on public interest grounds. The Competition and Markets Authority is the UK's independent body responsible for enforcing antitrust rules and reviewing major corporate mergers.
Commitments on UK programming
The approval came after Paramount strengthened its commitments on audiovisual output, news and programming in the UK, offering additional guarantees to protect content diversity and the editorial identities of its various services.
Among the pledges, Paramount promised to keep the editorial identities of its linear channels and on-demand services separate, and to preserve the distinct character of children's channels Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, both of which will continue investing in original British content.
The company also guaranteed the editorial independence of Channel 5 News, its separation from CBS News and CNN International, and the continuity of CNN International in the UK. Channel 5 will keep operating as a public service, and Paramount will increase investment in news, children's programming and drama series produced in the country.
The UK clearance marks further progress for a deal that still faces other regulatory hurdles, particularly in the United States.
US antitrust trial delayed to 2027
On the other side of the Atlantic, the future of the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger will take longer to resolve than expected. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin has set March 2, 2027, as the start date for the antitrust trial that will determine whether the $111 billion deal can proceed.
The trial is scheduled to run for 12 business days, concluding on March 19, with a pretrial hearing set for February 24. The timetable is a setback for Paramount Skydance, which had asked for proceedings to begin in November of this year, while attorneys general from 12 states and the Writers Guild of America, both opposed to the deal, had sought an April 2027 start.
A costly delay
The postponement carries a significant financial cost for Paramount. Starting October 1, the company will begin accruing a fee of $7 million a day, payable to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders until the transaction closes. According to calculations published by Variety, if the trial concludes on schedule, Paramount could end up paying approximately $1.2 billion in total.
Paramount says it remains confident the deal will ultimately go through. David Ellison, chairman and chief executive of Paramount, said the company was open to pursuing an out-of-court settlement, but that he believed the facts and the law were on its side and expected to win at trial.
Rival claims over competition and jobs
The lawsuit from the attorneys general, led by California and joined by 11 other states, argues that the purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery would illegally reduce competition in television and film distribution markets. A separate lawsuit filed by the Writers Guild of America contends the merger would also harm the labor market for screenwriters.
Paramount counters that the deal would create a stronger competitor to streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Ellison has also questioned whether the true motive behind the opposition is market concentration, suggesting that a possible acquisition of CNN could be a factor behind the legal battle.
Paramount says its financing is in place and that it continues working to close the acquisition as soon as possible, though the court's ruling could leave the agreement in limbo for several months.
