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Paramount’s attempted $110 billion takeover of TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is devolving into a fight between blue states and red ones.
Iowa attorney general Brenna Bird is suing California, leading a 12-state antitrust lawsuit against Paramount, the parent company of CBS Sports, and WBD, and is taking the matter directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“California is once again trying to be the country’s regulator,” Bird wrote in an op-ed in The Daily Wire. “And once again California is defying common sense to raise costs around the country. That makes this a dispute between states, and the Constitution says those can only be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. … Just like California should keep its hands off America’s bacon, California needs to understand that it doesn’t get to decide what Americans can choose to watch or stream.”
Soon after that article appeared online, Bird filed a motion with the Supreme Court, with another conservative state, Montana, joining in the action that seeks to accelerate a closing of the Paramount-WBD deal.
“A merger that is delayed past the point of viability is not restored by a favorable judgment years later,” the two states’ filing reads in part.
Last month, California attorney general Rob Bonta led the initial antitrust suit against Paramount and WBD, involving a dozen blue-leaning states. In six weeks, that action has already had significant impact, including an agreement to delay closing of the merger until a scheduled trial in March 2027.
Bonta has also begun negotiations with Paramount on a potential settlement that, despite some recent finger-pointing between the two sides, could lead to Paramount shedding some of the WBD assets.
To Bird, however, none of that should be happening.
“Two storied American companies are frozen,” Bird wrote. “Warner Bros. cannot confidently green-light a film, upgrade its technology, or sign a long-term contract without knowing whether it will exist as an independent company next year. Paramount cannot execute its plans without a merger either. Employees cannot plan careers. And a movie that does not get made this year may never get made at all. Financing expires, talent moves on, and production slates are abandoned. No court ruling in 2027 can go back and produce the film that was never shot.”
More broadly, Bird argues not only in favor of the deal, but that Paramount needs far greater scale in order to compete with entities such as Netflix.
“When regulators in 68 jurisdictions with different laws, different politics, and no stake whatsoever in American elections all reach the same conclusion, the outlier is not the consensus,” Bird wrote. “California is just dreaming up something radical.”
Legal Matters
The motion from Iowa and Montana seeks a declaration that California and the other 11 blue states cannot obtain an injunction against the Paramount-WBD deal and enjoins them pursuing their case further, as well a declaration saying that the merger does not violate the federal Clayton Antitrust Act.
There is no guarantee, however, that the Supreme Court will take up the case from Iowa and Montana, and in fact, it only hears a very small percentage of the petitions it receives. The Supreme Court is also currently out of session until early October.
While the Paramount legal case focuses primarily on the potential Hollywood-related impacts of the deal, and an alleged violation of federal antitrust law, the Paramount-WBD agreement also has far-reaching sports impacts. The planned combination of TNT Sports and CBS Sports would have touchpoints in nearly every major pro and college sports entity in the U.S., with the notable exception of the NBA.
The Daily Wire was cofounded by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro.
