UPDATED with Paramount response: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the Senate antitrust subcommittee, will hold a “spotlight hearing” on Wednesday on Paramount’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Booker also has invited Paramount CEO David Ellison to testify, following up on previous letters asking him to appear. But Paramount informed Booker that Ellison could not attend, as he is attending a funeral due to a death in the family.
A “spotlight hearing” is not an official hearing on the Senate Judiciary schedule, but rather are typically held by one or more members of a party to focus on a particular issue. Last month, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) held a spotlight hearing in Los Angeles on the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Per Booker’s office, those scheduled to appear at Wednesday’s hearing include David Borenstein, this year’s documentary feature winner for Mr. Nobody Against Putin; Michael Isaac, director of legal services at the Writers Guild of America East; attorney Katie Phang; and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and member of the steering committee of Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment.
Fonda’s committee helped organize an open letter of industry professionals opposing the Paramount-WBD merger. A spokesperson for another group that is involved in the effort, the Democracy Defenders Fund, said that more than 2,000 have signed on to the letter, with Edward Norton, Pedro Pascal, Florence Pugh and Atsuko Okatsuka recently adding their names.
A Paramount spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his latest message to Ellison, Booker noted Paramount’s response to the open letter. “Paramount stated that the merger would ensure that creatives have ‘more avenues for their work, not fewer’ and that the combined company would ‘greenlight more projects’ and ‘back bold ideas.’ These are serious commitments. This forum is an opportunity for you to make them directly to Congress and to the workers, journalists and creators whose livelihoods depend on whether these promises are kept.” The New York Times first reported on Booker’s letter.
Ted Lehman, senior vice president and head of U.S. public policy and government affairs, wrote in a letter responding to Booker that their view on the transaction “is quite straightforward: We believe the transaction should be reviewed on the merits. And on the merits, the transaction is procompetitive.”
Lehman added, “Most importantly a Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery transaction is all about increasing the amount of content released in theaters and streaming platforms. This increase in content will create competition and greater demand for creative talent. We want customers in theaters, where they can experience the full moviegoing experience, and the increased number of theatrical releases that the combined company will generate will provide our streaming platform with an impressive array of content that will check the dominance of rivals like Netflix.”
