Business Insider21%
California AG says Paramount's Netflix defense misses the point 18%
By James Faris48%
7/14/2026, 9:04:41 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Red Herring, Negativity Bias, and Appeal to Authority, with Confirmation Bias as the most egregious example at 14.7% saturation with 88 hits. Analysis detected 868 faulty-reasoning hits from 599 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33.3% and a BS Rank of 18% (17,958 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 82.00% of the article peer group.
Rob Bonta is leading California and 11 other states in a lawsuit against David Ellison's Paramount Skydance.
Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images; Patrick T.
Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing Paramount to block its acquisition of WBD.
He says the rise of Netflix and other streaming services doesn't matter to his antitrust case.
His suit focuses on market concentration in three areas, including blockbuster films and cable TV.
Rob Bonta, California's attorney general, says it's not his job to protect Hollywood giants from the rise of Netflix and other streaming insurgents.
This week, Bonta and 11 other attorneys general sued Paramount Skydance to stop its deal to buy Warner Bros.
Discovery .
Paramount says it needs the deal to compete with tech giants in streaming and transition to a new media model.
Bonta told Business Insider that's irrelevant to his antitrust case.
"We're indifferent to — I guess, from a legal perspective — what markets are growing, which ones are shrinking," Bonta said in an interview.
"Maybe the theater market is shrinking, the cable market is shrinking, the streaming market is growing.
We don't have a specific opinion on that in this case.
And we're not trying to help one grow or stop one from shrinking."
Bonta said his suit focuses on how Paramount's WBD deal could affect market concentration in three areas: distribution of wide-release movies, distribution of big-budget blockbuster films, and licensing of cable channels.
Bonta argues that buying WBD would give David Ellison's Paramount too much power over theater owners, pay-TV distributors, and — by extension — consumers.
He's seeking a preliminary injunction, or a temporary court order to pause the Paramount-WBD transaction.
"They'll be able to dictate terms with the theaters," Bonta said.
"They'll be able to ask for more money.
The theaters will have to pay more.
That means raised costs for moviegoers."
Paramount says its merger would create "a stronger competitor against dominant streaming and technology platforms who have harmed the market for theatrical exhibition and jobs in the entertainment industry."
Bonta believes controlling Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.
Studios would make Ellison's company too powerful.
Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Bonta said that his lawsuit isn't about the streaming business and said Paramount's point about tech giants like Netflix and Amazon is a "distraction and a deflection."
"The streaming market is not one of the markets that we've identified as a market that will create so much market concentration by the merger that it will be unlawful under the Clayton Act," Bonta said.
He added that Ellison and company "want Netflix to be the black cat, but Netflix is not part of our case."
A supercharged Paramount-WBD would control HBO, CBS, and CNN; streamers HBO Max, Paramount+, and Pluto TV; TV networks like TNT, HGTV, and Comedy Central; and two major film studios in Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.
Studios.
Star actors and directors like Ben Stiller have also spoken out against the deal, which the US Department of Justice has already approved , warning that the tie-up would result in "fewer opportunities for creators."
Corey Martin, a lawyer who's chair of the entertainment finance practice at Los Angeles-based Granderson Des Rochers, told Business Insider that Bonta's decision to exclude streaming from the market concentration calculation was a "novel approach."
"It's hard to envision this deal in its totality without considering streaming," Martin said, given that "streaming is the driver for the deal."
Read the original article on Business Insider
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