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Yannis Tzioumakis, Professor of Film and Media Industries in the Department of Communication and Media, appeared yesterday on Australia’s ABC News Breakfast show to comment on Paramount Skydance’s $108 billion bid to take over fellow entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. A few days earlier, streaming giant Netflix seemed to have won the race to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s most valuable assets (the Warner Bros. studio and its huge library of titles as well HBO Max and its catalogue of popular TV series). Paramount Skydance, however, returned with an improved bid targeting directly WBD’s shareholders in an effort to pressurise its management to reject the deal with Netflix.
Paramount Skydance has boasted that it would be better for Hollywood, for the creative community and for the movie theatre industry if it took over Warner Bros. Discovery, suggesting that Netflix would become even stronger if it ended up controlling Warner Bros.’ films and HBO’s shows. On the other hand, if Warner Bros. becomes part of Paramount Skydance it is very likely that the two studios would merge, making the American film industry shrink even further following the takeover of 21th Century-Fox (and its 20th Century-Fox Studio) by The Walt Disney Company in 2017. Whichever of the two deals goes through it is clear that that the American film industry is going through a period of consolidation.