Washington, D.C. — Following news that Netflix that has announced plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in an $82.7 billion merger deal, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“If you love movies, you should hate this deal,” said Matt Stoller, Research Director at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Warner should remain as a profitable independent business, and attempts to sell it should be blocked. Allowing the number one streamer to buy the number three streamer and lock up one of the world’s most significant content libraries would gut competition, harming creators, storytellers, and consumers. With streaming prices rising and theatrical releases dwindling, this deal and any other attempts to buy WBD would deepen a crisis of media consolidation that is threatening creatives and eroding our freedom of expression.”

“This deal looks a lot like the Penguin Random House–Simon & Schuster merger that was blocked by antitrust enforcers,” continued Stoller. “The effect of Netflix buying Warner would shrink opportunities for talent and tighten control over what gets made. Enforcers should take a highly skeptical view of this deal. Beyond stopping this deal, policymakers must restore prohibitions on vertical integration as a modern streaming-era version of the financial-syndication rules.”

“It is irresponsible for Warner Bros. Discovery’s board to pursue a transaction that will almost certainly be challenged, freezing the company for years and degrading its assets in the process,” added Stoller. “If David Zaslav cannot run the company without resorting to an obviously unlawful merger, the board must replace him rather than reward him with a $500 million payday.”

Top industry players in Hollywood are already urging Congress to reject the deal, with a letter sent recently from “concerned feature film producers,” reportedly including prominent filmmakers, pushing back against the proposed deal. The group cited a fear of retaliation for staying anonymous, given Netflix’s considerable market power as a buyer and distributor.

Warner Bros. Discovery, valued at roughly $60 billion, had previously planned to divide its business between a streaming-and-studio unit and a separate television-network company. But after months of weak financial performance and investor pressure, it has shifted toward selling the entire firm. Whether the buyer is Netflix, Ellison’s Paramount-Skydance, or Comcast, every proposed deal suffers from the same basic flaw: each would combine two of the largest players in film and streaming, cut the number of major studios from five to four, and further erode competition for creative labor. With streaming prices rising sharply and thousands of media workers laid off since 2022, another mega-merger would lead to fewer jobs, higher costs, and a blow to free expression.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.