British regulators on Thursday gave Paramount the greenlight for its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, with some new assurances from the company — clearing another hurdle for the mega merger while it still faces challenges elsewhere.
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British regulators on Thursday gave Paramount the greenlight for its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, with some new assurances from the company — clearing another hurdle for the mega merger while it still faces challenges elsewhere.
British regulators on Thursday gave Paramount the greenlight for its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, with some new assurances from the company — clearing another hurdle for the mega merger while it still faces challenges elsewhere.
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority cleared the pending acquisition, ruling that a Paramount-Warner tie up does not pose a “substantial lessening of competition” in the country. Meanwhile, Britain’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it also wouldn’t intervene — on the basis of several “legally-binding commitments” from Paramount related to its footprint in U.K. broadcasting and on-demand entertainment.
Paramount welcomed Thursday’s decisions. The company, which was bought by Skydance just one year ago, called the U.K.’s clearance “an important milestone” towards completing its Warner purchase.
A Paramount-Warner combo would mean putting HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like “Harry Potter” and even CNN under the same roof with CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service. Both companies carry notable reach in production and television specific to the U.K., too — with assets also including Paramount-owned Channel 5 in London, localized Nickelodeon programming and Warner’s British arm of TNT Sports.
Citing competition concerns specifically for news, TV and streaming platforms available to U.K. consumers, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy previously said she was “minded to intervene” in the merger. But on Thursday, her office said Paramount later agreed to “provide a set of protections” to safeguard the “continued availability of a diverse range of broadcasting and on-demand services in the UK,” as well their editorial independence.
DCMS said that includes maintaining independence at Channel 5, with an “entirely separate” editorial direction from CBS and CNN. Paramount also agreed to not combine its linear channels with on-demand services in the U.K., DCMS said, and that children’s channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will remain distinct from each other.
Under their agreement, DCMS said it will monitor Paramount’s implementation of these commitments and that the company will provide annual statements of compliance.