Warner Bros. Discovery earned a Medium Risk rating because it shows high risk in discriminatory philanthropy and activist advocacy/funding practices, even though its cancellation and political action practices are lower risk. The mixed results reflect a pattern of occasionally letting political and social causes influence corporate decisions rather than consistently focusing on merit-based business priorities.
CancellationsLower Risk
Discriminatory PhilanthropyHigh Risk
Employment ProtectionMedium Risk
Advocacy BiasHigh Risk
FundingHigh Risk
Political ActionsLower Risk
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Also known as WBD, Warner Bros Discovery, Warner Brothers Discovery
Board Bias
Leadership political contributions favor Democrats heavily ($754,705 Democratic vs $3,372,283 Republican support reported), and a full Board Bias Report is available.
Assessment by 1792 Exchange. Summary generated by IJR from their published rating.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed through the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with Discovery, Inc. on April 8, 2022. On April 23, 2026, the company agreed to be sold to Paramount Skydance in a US$110 billion transaction, subject to approval by U.S. regulators. On June 12, 2026, the Paramount-WBD deal was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. However, on July 24, 2026, the proposed merger, which is facing widespread anti-trust legal action, would be delayed until June 1, 2027. On August 4, 2026, a federal judge would rule in favor of holding the antitrust trial related to the proposed Paramount-WBD merger in March 2027, denying Paramount's request to hold it in the fall of 2026.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed through the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with Discovery, Inc. on April 8, 2022.
Warner Bros. Discovery operates via two divisions: Streaming & Studios and Global Linear Networks. Streaming & Studios includes the flagship Warner Bros. studios, HBO, DC Entertainment, and streaming services such as HBO Max and Discovery+. Global Linear Networks largely includes advertising-supported cable networks. Those networks were inherited from its predecessors Discovery (such as the Discovery Channel among others), Scripps Networks Interactive (such as HGTV among others), and Turner Broadcasting System (such as Cartoon Network, Boomerang, CNN, TBS, and TNT). Warner Bros. Discovery International is also included in the division, which manages broadcasting operations outside of the United States.
In June 2025, WBD announced plans to divest the Global Linear Networks division into a new company, later referred to as "Discovery Global", in order to separate it from the more profitable Warner Bros. studios business. Following multiple unsolicited bids for the entire company by Paramount Skydance, and interest by other companies in the studios business, Netflix, Inc. would win a bidding war for the studios business in December 2025. However, after multiple hostile counter-offers, WBD would back out of the Netflix offer and agreed to be acquired in full by Paramount Skydance for $110 billion; the sale has been approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and other international authorities, but its consummation has been delayed indefinitely due to a pending antitrust trial scheduled to occur in March 2027.
Contents
Background
1923–1979
Warner Bros., Turner Broadcasting System, Scripps Networks Interactive and Discovery, Inc. have conjoined histories. Warner Bros. was founded on April 4, 1923, by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner in Hollywood. Warner Bros. established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation, television, and video games. It is one of the "Big Five" American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). In 1965, Turner Broadcasting System was founded by Ted Turner in Atlanta, Georgia. A year later, Kinney National Company came into existence. It reincorporated as Warner Communications in 1972.
1979–1996
In 1979, Warner Communications formed a joint venture with credit card company American Express called Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. American Express acquired a 50% stake in Warner Communications' cable television holdings for $175 million. This company owned such cable channels as MTV, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel, and VH1 (which was launched in 1985 on the channel space left by Turner's Cable Music Channel). Warner Communications bought American Express's half in 1984 and sold the venture a year later to the original iteration of Viacom, which renamed it MTV Networks (now known as Paramount Media Networks). In 1982, Warner Communications purchased Popular Library from CBS Publications. Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. in 1990 to become Time Warner.
In 1982, Cable Education Network was founded, launching The Discovery Channel three years later. It was named Discovery Communications in 1994.
1996–2021
Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting System in 1996, allowing it to reenter the cable industry. In 2001, it merged with America Online (AOL) to form AOL Time Warner, but the merger proved disastrous, and the company reverted to its former name, Time Warner, in 2003. Time Warner spun off its cable division (later known as Spectrum, owned by Charter Communications) in 2009, AOL (later owned by Yahoo! Inc.) in 2009, and Time Inc. in 2013, which was later acquired by Meredith Corporation and became Dotdash Meredith.
In 2018, Discovery Communications acquired Scripps Networks Interactive (a 2008 spun off from E. W. Scripps Company's cable division) and was renamed as Discovery, Inc. AT&T acquired Time Warner, becoming WarnerMedia. In 2019, AT&T integrated its related assets into Warner's business divisions as part of its reorganization, effectively breaking up Turner Broadcasting System.
History
Formation (2021–2022)
On May 17, 2021, AT&T and Discovery announced that AT&T would spin off WarnerMedia to its shareholders, which in turn would be merged with Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery. The merger would be structured as a Reverse Morris Trust, with AT&T shareholders holding a 71% interest in the new company's stock and appointing seven board members, and Discovery shareholders holding a 29% interest and appointing six board members. AT&T would receive US$43 billion in cash and debt. The merger was expected to be completed in mid-2022.
The merged company would be led by Discovery's current CEO, David Zaslav; WarnerMedia's CEO Jason Kilar's position in the new company was uncertain. Zaslav stated that the two companies would spend a combined US$20 billion annually on content (outpacing Netflix). The company aimed to expand their streaming services, which included WarnerMedia's HBO Max, to reach 400 million global subscribers.
On June 1, 2021, it was announced that the merged company would be known as Warner Bros. Discovery, and an interim wordmark was unveiled with the tagline "The stuff that dreams are made of"—a quote from the 1941 Warner Bros. film The Maltese Falcon, itself paraphrasing Shakespeare's The Tempest.
In an SEC Filing on November 18, 2021, Discovery revealed that talks with AT&T had fallen through, in April 2021, due to disagreements over the ownership of the new company between AT&T and Discovery shareholders, and the amount of debt transferred to Discovery when they merged with WarnerMedia, before talks resumed on May 17, 2021.
In November 2021, during an earnings call, Discovery Streaming CEO JB Perrette discussed possible options for its Discovery+ streaming service post-merger, including bundling the service with HBO Max and eventually merging them under a single platform with a mixture of both companies' technologies. He noted that WBD may prioritize launching Discovery+ and HBO Max as a unified platform in markets where Discovery+ had yet to launch, such as other parts of Asia-Pacific.
On December 22, 2021, the transaction was approved by the European Commission. On January 5, 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that WarnerMedia and Paramount Global (at the time named ViacomCBS) were exploring a possible sale of either a majority stake or all of The CW, and that Nexstar Media Group was considered a leading bidder. The reports also indicated that WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS could include a contractual commitment that would require any new owner to buy new programming from those companies, allowing them to reap some continual revenue through the network. The CW's then-president-and-CEO Mark Pedowitz confirmed talks of a potential sale in a memo to CW staffers, but added that "It's too early to speculate what might happen."
Declining turnover, cutbacks and restructuring (2023–2025)
In January 2023, WBD announced licensing agreements with free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services The Roku Channel and Fox Corporation's Tubi, featuring library content from Discovery, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, and HBO (including series that were pulled from HBO Max).
On February 8, 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that WBD had amended its plans to merge Discovery+ with HBO Max, with HBO Max's successor slated to include "most" Discovery content, and Discovery+ remaining operational to retain its subscriber base, and provide an alternative option for customers not interested in the higher-priced unified service. On February 24, WBD CEO David Zaslav confirmed the change of plans, saying that Discovery+ has "profitable subscribers that are very happy with the product offering".
In early-June, Licht was fired from CNN. On June 20 WBD underwent a round of layoffs affecting around 100 employees in the U.S. Networks division, most notably including multiple Turner Classic Movies (TCM) executives such as Pola Changnon (who had been with Turner for over 25 years). WBD announced plans to place the channel under Cartoon Network head Michael Ouweleen. It was also reported that WBD was preparing a deal to sell half of the published music catalog of Warner Bros. Entertainment (which films and television scores, and is administered by Universal Music Publishing Group) for around $500 million. Amid concerns over the future of TCM, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson met with Zaslav, and on June 23 the company announced that the channel would move under Warner Bros. Pictures Group heads Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy—who both affirmed the cultural significance of TCM and pledged to keep its programming "untouched and protected".
In December 2023, WBD announced the purchase of Turkish streaming platform BluTV, with operations in the MENA region. On February 16, 2024, RedBird Capital Partners (via its United Arab Emirates-backed partnership RedBird IMI) announced its intent to acquire All3Media—a WBD joint venture with Liberty Global—for £1.15 billion. The acquisition was completed on May 16, 2024.
In April 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand announced that it would shut down Newshub (which produced bulletins for its free-to-air channel Three) in July 2024, citing declining local advertising revenue. Newshub was supplanted by a partnership with local media company Stuff, which launched an evening newscast under the ThreeNews banner. In July 2024, CNN CEO Mark Thompson announced 100 layoffs. A week later, additional WBD employees at Max and in production, business affairs, and finance were also let go.
Attempted separation and proposed sale to Paramount Skydance (2025–present)
On June 9, 2025, WBD announced plans to split its two operational units into separate companies. The two companies —which would later be referred to as "Warner Bros." and "Discovery Global"—would led by Zaslav and current WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels respectively. The transactions were expected to be completed by mid-2026; the split was structured to be tax-free, with Discovery Global assuming Warner Bros.' debt. On September 10, 2025, Zaslav stated that the split was on track for completion by April 2026.
On September 11, 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that David Ellison—which had recently acquired Paramount Global via Skydance Media—was exploring a bid to acquire the entirety of WBD via Paramount Skydance. Such an acquisition would integrate overlapping assets between the two companies, including two of the five major film studios (Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures), streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+, TNT Sports and CBS Sports, and CNN and CBS News. An analyst suggested that the bid was meant to preempt potential interest in the studios business post-split, and take advantage of a "period of industry-wide instability". WBD's share prices increased by 33% following the reports.
Paramount made multiple unsolicited bids in October 2026, insisting that its offers would "[deliver] superior value" to shareholders in comparison to the previously-proposed split. On October 31, Netflix, Inc. was reported to be actively exploring a bid for the studio and streaming unit; the company stressed that it remains "predominantly focused on growing organically", and was not interested in WBD's legacy linear television businesses. On November 20, Paramount Skydance, Netflix, and Comcast (which was in the process of similarly divesting its cable television assets) formally submitted bids; Comcast and Netflix made cash-and-stock and mostly-cash bids for the studios company respectively, while Paramount Skydance made an all-cash offer for the entirety of WBD, backed by debt financing from Apollo Global Management and Middle-Eastern sovereign wealth funds.
While WBD initially accepted a $72 billion offer by Netflix to acquire the streaming and studios division (valuing WBD as a whole at $82.7 billion). Paramount Skydance argued that the Netflix bid would face more regulatory obstacles than its own offers, including that the company wanted to use WBD's properties to enrich its dominant position in SVOD and cut back on theatrical releases. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated that the company would have broke from its usual streaming-first strategy and continued to release films theatrically through Warner Bros. with a standard 45-day window, arguing that its films represented "billions of dollars" of potential revenue.
Assets
Warner Bros. Discovery includes two primary business divisions: Streaming & Studios and Global Linear Networks.
Streaming & Studios has the following divisions:
Warner Bros. Entertainment
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group includes the company's filmed entertainment and theatrical entertainment businesses, including Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Warner Bros. Clockwork and Castle Rock Entertainment. The division is led by Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy.
Warner Bros. Television Group includes domestic and international network of television production companies, including the flagship Warner Bros. Television label, Telepictures, Alloy Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Williams Street, and Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, a 12.5% stake in The CW (with the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Skydance Corporation holding another 12.5%), and Turner Classic Movies. The division is led by Channing Dungey.
DC Studios oversees DC Comics and is the film and series production sites of WBD for DC media in the new film and series franchise DC Universe. The division is led by James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming manages the company's direct-to-consumer platforms, online brands and gaming businesses, including HBO Max and Warner Bros. Games. It also houses Home Box Office, Inc., the parent company of HBO, and Cinemax.
Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences manages Warner Bros. theme parks and studio tours. Additional business segments include divisions responsible for Global Content Distribution (Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution), and Advertising Sales.
Other components include Warner Bros. Theater Ventures, Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Turner Entertainment Co., The Wolper Organization, WaterTower Music and Warner Bros. Studio Operations.
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On January 26, 2022, AT&T CEO John Stankey stated that the merger was expected to close sometime during the second quarter of 2022. On February 1, 2022, it was reported that AT&T had finalized the structure of the merger: WarnerMedia would be spun off pro rata to AT&T's shareholders, and then merge into Discovery Inc. to form the new company. The transaction was approved by the Brazilian antitrust regulator Cade on February 7, followed by the United States Department of Justice on February 9. On March 11, 2022, the merger was approved by Discovery's shareholders. Due to the structure of the merger, it did not require separate approval from AT&T shareholders.
In an SEC filing on March 25, 2022, AT&T stated that two-way trading of WBD stock with that of AT&T would begin on April 4, 2022, and that a special dividend would be issued the next day to give AT&T shareholders a 0.24 share in WBD for each share of AT&T common stock they held. The merger was officially completed on April 8, 2022. Trading began on Nasdaq on April 11. At this time the company unveiled its final logo, designed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, which features a rendition of Warner Bros.' long-time shield logo.
The combined company retained several top executives from WarnerMedia, including film and television heads Toby Emmerich and Channing Dungey, and HBO and HBO Max chief content officer (CCO) Casey Bloys. Most of the company's top executive roles are filled by their Discovery counterparts, including Gunnar Wiedenfels as Warner Bros. Discovery's chief financial officer (CFO), JB Perrette as president and CEO of global streaming and interactive, and Discovery's chief lifestyle brands officer Kathleen Finch—whose role expanded to cover most of the combined company's U.S. linear networks, besides CNN (which was taken over by Chris Licht, replacing the outgoing Jeff Zucker), Magnolia Network (which reported to Bloys, after reporting directly to Zaslav under Discovery), and the Turner Sports unit (which would be overseen by the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery Sports division).
In an introductory town hall hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Zaslav stated that the combined company would need to have "one culture" that "starts with people feeling safe, people feeling valued for who they are", as opposed what he described as a culture of internal competition between WarnerMedia's businesses. He expected that "investment avoidance" via the consolidation of redundant business units (such as streaming) and staff would be one of the main ways that the company would achieve its promised $3 billion in cost savings. On April 21, 2022, Licht and Perrette announced the shutdown of CNN's streaming service CNN+, which had launched only two weeks prior to the completion of the merger; the new leadership considered it to be incompatible with their goal of a unified streaming service for WBD properties.
In an investors' call on April 26 (concurrent with the first quarter earnings reports for Discovery Inc., its last prior to the merger), Zaslav contrasted the company's streaming businesses with Netflix (whose stock declined after a quarterly loss in subscribers), describing Warner Bros. Discovery as a "far more balanced and competitive company" that would "invest at scale smartly" and not "overspend" on growth and that its streaming businesses would complement its linear networks. He stated that HBO Max had "meaningful subscriber churn", and that the planned merger of it with Discovery+ would help to reduce churn by offering a broader content mix. It was reported that the company had suspended scripted development at TBS and TNT, to evaluate their strategies. The following day, Zaslav purchased approximately $1 million worth of WBD stock.
On May 11, 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery eliminated several executive positions carried over from WarnerMedia, including Kids, Young Adults and Classics head Tom Ascheim, and general manager of TBS, TNT, and TruTV head Brett Weitz. These networks would be overseen by Finch as head of U.S. Networks, while the studios and one network under the Kids, Young Adults and Classics division (Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Turner Classic Movies and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe) was moved under Warner Bros. Television. That day, it announced an agreement with British telecom company BT Group for it to contribute its BT Sport channels into a 50/50 joint venture with its UK Eurosport channels, and eventually merge them.
On June 1, 2022, Warner Bros. Pictures head Toby Emmerich announced his departure to establish a new studio, to be funded and distributed exclusively (for five-years) by Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. Pictures was then divided into three business units with separate leadership: former MGM executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy became the co-chairs of Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema, and temporarily oversaw the DC Films and Warner Animation Group units. Eight days later, WBD named former Discovery and Univision executive Luis Silberwasser as chairman of Sports. In July 2022, Alan Horn rejoined Warner Bros. as a consultant.
WBD delivered its second-quarter earnings report on August 4, 2022. Ahead of the report, the company performed surgery on HBO Max, including cutting new programming development in much of Europe, live-action children's programming development, and direct-to-streaming films—including notable August 3 cancellations of the nearly completed films Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt as tax write-offs, and the quiet removals of multiple HBO Max original films from the platform along with upcoming releases.
In the second quarter of 2022, WBD revealed $9.8 billion in revenue and a net loss of $2.2 billion pro forma, primarily from integration and restructuring expenses. The company took $825 million in write-offs on "content impairments and development". The company confirmed cuts to children's program development, and abandoned the production of direct-to-streaming films for HBO Max—with Zaslav arguing that they lacked economic value and impact in comparison to theatrical releases. WBD renewed its contracts with Bloys and other key HBO executives; Zaslav praised Bloys' performance as chief content officer. Zaslav stated that a "10-year plan" was in development for DC Films, modeled after those of Marvel Studios, while Perrette stated that the planned merger of Discovery+ and HBO Max would occur by summer 2023 in the United States, followed by other markets.
HBO subsequently reorganized on August 15 to dismantle most of HBO Max's autonomous units. HBO Max's head of comedy Suzanna Makkos began reporting to HBO's head of comedy Amy Gravitt. Layoffs hit HBO Max's non-scripted, live-action family entertainment, international originals, and casting units, as well as HBO's acquisitions unit. HBO Max also continued to remove and cancel some of its lesser-viewed original programming, particularly family-oriented and animated series.
On August 15, 2022, Nexstar confirmed in June that it would buy a controlling 75% interest in The CW; WBD and Paramount would each retain a 12.5% ownership interest. Nexstar stated that Mark Pedowitz would remain its chairman and CEO. WBD and Paramount would remain The network's main content suppliers, but Nexstar stated that the arrangement would be for the 2022–23 broadcast season, and it retained the option to extend the partnership. As the transaction did not require regulatory approval (unlike the "Big Four" networks, The CW does not own stations), Nexstar immediately took over the network's operations.
In September 2022, WBD became the subject of a proposed class-action lawsuit by one of its shareholders, alleging that WarnerMedia was overinvesting in streaming content "without sufficient concern for return on investments", and had overstated the number of HBO Max subscribers by at least 10 million by counting inactivated subscriptions bundled with AT&T services—thus misleading investors in violation of the Securities Act. It also alleged that Discovery executives failed to warn investors that WarnerMedia's prospectus contained misleading statements.
On September 28 during a company town hall, Zaslav addressed speculation that WBD was pursuing a possible sale as early as 2024, stating that it was "absolutely not for sale", and "have everything we need to be successful". On October 11, Warner Bros. Television Group laid off 82 employees and eliminated 43 vacant positions as part of a restructuring that primarily impacted its unscripted and animation units. The restructuring saw the consolidation of Warner Horizon and Telepictures' creative operations, and the consolidation of Cartoon Network Studios' and Warner Bros. Animation's development and production teams (with the two studios retaining separate labels with distinct output).
On October 3, 2022, Nexstar closed its deal to acquire a controlling interest in The CW. Mark Pedowitz resigned from his position as the network's chairman and CEO, replaced by Dennis Miller as president. Later that month, it was announced that filmmaker James Gunn and producer Peter Safran would serve as co-CEOs and co-chairs of DC Films which rebranded as DC Studios. The duo signed a four-year deal to oversee film, television, and animation production for DC. The pair reported directly to Zaslav, while working independently with other members of the studio. Gunn would oversee creative development on DC projects, while Safran took the business aspect. An earnings report in November 2022, announced that the launch of WBD's streaming service had been moved up to spring 2023. Max was unveiled April 12, 2023. In December 2022, CNN announced cutbacks and a reorganization to prioritize its "core" operations, resulting in sister channel HLN being brought under the auspices of Investigation Discovery and abandoning its remaining original live news programming.
On July 24, the NBA announced new media rights agreements with Disney (ESPN and ABC), NBCUniversal (NBC and Peacock), and Amazon Prime Video beginning in the 2025–26 season, ending a nearly 36-year association between the NBA and TNT. WBD had attempted to invoke a condition in its contract allowing it to match offers made by competitors (targeting the package sold to Amazon), but the league argued that it did not sufficiently match Amazon's offer. WBD threatened legal action, claiming that the NBA had "grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights".
In August, WBD reported that it had lost $10 billion in the second quarter of 2024, relating to continued losses from its direct-to-consumer segment and the devaluation of its linear television assets.
In November, WBD agreed to a settlement with the NBA, allowing TNT Sports continued access to highlights for its digital platforms Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, international rights for selected markets in Nordic Europe and South America, a package of Big 12 Conference basketball and football games sublicensed from ESPN, and an agreement for TNT Sports to continue producing its popular NBA studio show Inside the NBA to air on ESPN and ABC in conjunction with their own NBA coverage.
On December 12, 2024, Zaslav announced a restructuring of WBD into two divisions, known as "Streaming & Studios" and "Global Linear Networks"; the reorganization was meant to allow for greater flexibility and "potential future strategic opportunities", separating the company's cable television operations from its more profitable studio and direct-to-consumer businesses (including Warner Bros., HBO, and Max).
On March 24, 2025, WBD announced that it would buy a 30% minority stake in Dubai-based OSN Streaming Limited for $57 million.
In July 2025, WBD announced that it would divest its New Zealand television operations Three and ThreeNow to local competitor Sky Network Television for $1. WBD is retaining its subscription television and production operations in the region.
Paramount Skydance subsequently made multiple hostile offers in December and February, with the latter also offering to cover Netflix's breakup fee, and pay an ongoing "ticking fee" as a penalty of approximately $650 million per-quarter if the acquisition is not closed within 2026. Ellison stated that a combined Paramount–WBD would commit to releasing 30 "high-quality" theatrical films per-year, maintaining theatrical and home video windows, continue acquiring third-party content, and continuing to allow HBO to operate independently.
On February 26, 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that it considered Paramount's updated bid to be superior to Netflix's current offer, triggering a four-business-day period during which Netflix could improve its offer. Netflix subsequently declined to increase its bid, stating that the deal was "no longer financially attractive." On February 27, 2026, Paramount Skydance confirmed its deal to acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery for $110 billion. The deal was expected to be closed by September 30, 2026 at the earliest. On April 23, 2026, WBD's shareholders approved the sale to Paramount Skydance. However, an offer to have the sale include a golden parachute for Zaslav and other WBD executives was also rejected.
The Paramount offer has faced the possibility of antitrust issues due to its horizontal integration of two legacy media conglomerates and film studios; such a merger would resemble the larger Disney acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019. Prior to the shareholder vote, an open letter opposing the sale was circulated among actors and creative personnel by the WGA, Committee for the First Amendment, Democracy Defenders Fund, and the Future Film Coalition, arguing that it would "prioritize the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good", and would "grievously" compromise the integrity, independence, and diversity of the industry. Paramount defended the acquisition, stating that it would allow the company to "greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers, and bring stories to audiences at a truly global scale—while strengthening competition by ensuring multiple scaled players are investing in creative talent." Paramount also reiterated Ellison's previously-announced commitments to at least 30 theatrical releases per-year, and maintaining "independent creative leadership" of its brands". Concerns had also been raised over the editorial independence of CNN following the merger, citing the changes made to CBS News after the Paramount Skydance merger (including appointing right-wing commentator Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief).
An antitrust lawsuit challenging the WBD–Paramount sale was filed by a group of consumers in April 2026, arguing that it would reduce viewpoint diversity and lead to an increase in prices for its services. On June 4, Paramount Skydance filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that the complaint did not present enough evidence that the acquisition was anti-competitive. On June 10, 2026, the WBD–Paramount sale was approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which did not impose any major conditions on the company. Paramount Skydance also received necessary approvals from competition authorities in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Serbia and North Macedonia, and from foreign direct investment authorities in Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Italy, France, and Romania. On June 12, 2026, the sale was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. The transaction was reportedly approved by senior department officials without the input of lower-ranking lawyers, which had sought an investigation. On June 17, 2026, the sale was approved by the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation.
On July 13, 2026, a coalition of 12 state attorneys general led by California filed an emergency motion in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking to halt the WBD–Paramount merger. The motion argued that the combined company would control over a quarter of U.S. box office and cable television revenue, giving it undue leverage on film exhibitors and television providers respectively that could increase costs to consumers. The suit also argued that since Paramount's previously-announced commitments were not legally-binding, the company could still "harm competition by reducing investment and innovation, degrading quality, and raising the price of those 30 films they produce". A Paramount spokesperson stated that the company would "vigorously defend" the sale, arguing that the lawsuit was based on a "fundamentally flawed application of the antitrust laws", and that not approving the acquisition would result in "harm [to] entertainment workers who have already suffered over recent years as technology has disrupted their livelihood and cost California tens of thousands of entertainment jobs."
On July 14, the WGA filed its own antitrust lawsuit, arguing that the reduction of competition would give Paramount "both the incentive and the ability to lower costs by suppressing writers' wages and reducing output." A court hearing for the state AGs' lawsuit was set to begin on July 17; the case was assigned to Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, after Paramount requested the recusal of Judge P. Casey Pitts due to his prior work as legal counsel for the WGA. On July 15, David and Larry Ellison were sued by a Paramount Skydance shareholder, accusing them of offering "illegal private benefits" to President Trump in order to expedite government approval for the WBD–Paramount sale, including the dismissal of CNN anchors that Trump had been critical of. Paramount argued that the suit “recycles allegations that have already been reported and already addressed”, and that "no commitments from either David or Larry Ellison have been made to any government body, State AG, or federal agency regarding the future of CNN or any other news property, other than the goal to deliver truth-based journalism" On July 16, 2026, Judge Martínez-Olguín declined the consumers' lawsuit from April, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to present sufficient standing to sue.
On July 20, Judge Martínez-Olguín issued a two-week temporary restraining order to halt the WBD–Paramount merger. She ruled that the proposed merger was likely to violate US antitrust laws, citing the plaintiffs' evidence that the combined company "will possess substantial market share in the wide-release theatrical distribution market." On July 22, the merger was approved by the European Commission; as a condition, Paramount agreed to divest its stake in the distribution venture United International Pictures, and not enter into any other film distribution agreements with Universal Pictures in Europe for 10 years following the completion of the merger. On July 23, Judge Martínez-Olguín extended the temporary restraining order through August 17 in order to provide more time for legal proceedings. The next day, Paramount Skydance entered a joint stipulation promising to not close the WBD merger until June 1, 2027 or a ruling in the states' case, whichever comes first. Paramount becomes subject to the aforementioned "ticking fee" beginning in October 2026.
On August 1, 2026, it was reported that the office of California governor Gavin Newsom had pushed for attorney general Rob Bonta to seek an out-of-court resolution of the lawsuit, expressing concern that blocking the merger would harm the state's job market. On August 4, 2026, Judge Martínez-Olguín scheduled a trial for the WBD–Paramount antitrust case for March 2027. In a New York Times editorial the same day, David Ellison wrote that he felt the lawsuit was actually over whether he could be trusted as owner of CNN, reiterating that Paramount's news divisions "will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause", and that "I believe that anyone who oversees a news organization [..] shouldn’t put a finger on the scale, especially on matters involving his own company." In an earnings call, Zaslav stated that despite the uncertainty of the merger, WBD's culture and work ethic had been "inspiring", and that "our focus has been 'how do we drive a stronger company to meet our business plan and deliver a stronger and higher-growth company to PSKY and David, so that Paramount coming together with Warner Bros. is even stronger?'"
On August 6, the acquisition was approved by British authorities, with Paramount agreeing to legally-binding concessions with culture minister Lisa Nandy requiring that it not combine linear and on-demand services for five years, maintain editorial independence among its news and children's divisions, and maintain its commitments to UK-produced programming for 5. Block the Merger—an industry group opposed to the WBD–Paramount deal—argued that these concessions "[lend] powerful credibility" to the states' lawsuit.
On August 11, 2026, it was reported Ellison had told Paramount executives that he wanted to begin relocating the company from California as early as October if AG Bonta refused to negotiate a resolution to the lawsuit. Bonta released a statement arguing that this threat was "another attempt to blackmail the state into letting an illegal deal through", while the WGA stated that it "further prove[d] the danger of [Paramount's] outsized power over the industry and what that will mean for writers and the creative community." When questioned on the topic at a Politico conference the next day, Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim commented that "there's a point at which where you have a duty, a fiduciary duty to your shareholders, and those are the factors you consider", and that if he were governor of California, "I wouldn't want to lose Hollywood from the state. I wouldn't want to lose a major company like Paramount to another state."
On August 17, 2026, it was reported that Paramount Skydance had demanded that the plaintiffs place a $1.88 billion bond in order to "protect Paramount against the financial harm wrought by the circumstances", including the ticking fee among other costs. Bonta once again accused Paramount Skydance of blackmail, arguing that that Paramount and Warner Bros. willfully included the ticking fee despite knowing that the deal would face regulatory scrutiny.
Global Linear Networks includes the company's linear cable networks, including Discovery+, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Oprah Winfrey Network, Investigation Discovery, Food Network and Cooking Channel, HGTV, TBS, TNT, TruTV, and The Cartoon Network, Inc. (Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang). The division is also led by Channing Dungey.
CNN Worldwide operates CNN and other news assets owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, including various international CNN branches and HLN. The division is led by Mark Thompson.
TNT Sports is the brand name used for sports-related divisions. The American division manages the company's domestic broadcast sports businesses, including MLB Network, formerly NBA TV, and the sports media website Bleacher Report and previously AT&T SportsNet until it shut down in 2023, while the European division handles international sports operations, including Eurosport and TNT Sports UK, and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Latin America which owns the sports channel TNT Sports LATAM which replaces Esporte Interativo. Both divisions are led by Luis Silberwasser.
Warner Bros. Discovery International focuses on local and regional variations that pipelined with global market through operations for its domestic television channels, including region-specific operations such as TVN Group in Poland, as well as the distribution of linear networks from CNN Worldwide and TNT Sports, including Eurosport. The division is led by Gerhard Zeiler. It is split into four regional hubs: Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific, Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, TVN Warner Bros. Discovery (Poland), and Warner Bros. Discovery Americas.
Warner Bros. Discovery also has minority shares in Vox Media and All Elite Wrestling.
