Warners is working the media coverage hard to promote good press for it's proposed $43B merger with Discovery. They are touting both the recent approval of the merger by the EC, and the statement by IRS that stock trades would be tax-free to shareholders. The deal spins off WarnerMedia from AT&T and mergers it with Discovery Networks. After the EC approval, AT&T stocks rose. However, Congress is asking the DOJ to investigate the deal closely, citing antitrust concerns.
Now I have raised this before, and it does seem evident to me that the MPA members and their ultimate owners (in this case AT&T) have gone on a consolidation and control spree since the DOJ set aside the famous consent order restricting their practices a couple years ago. This is really just the latest, and one of the most visible, maneuvers.
As a creator, whose professional existence depends on freedom of speech and open access to audiences for creators, I am very concerned by this merger, but more so by the overt trends of concentration of ownership and distribution controls in the industry.
What are your thoughts? Do you see a solution for independent producers in particular?
Here are relevant articles:
https://deadline.com/2022/01/warnermedia-discovery-deal-approal-1234904725/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/progressive-democrats-say-warnermed...
Fantastic topic, although scary news.
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Agreed. Really looking into who is owned by whom and the influence from the elite 0.1% on what the rest of us are able to produce and see is very disheartening. But there is hope! Every day we get to choose who to support and give our money and attention to. We should all be talking about this and making the change to what we want the industry to be. It is ours for the taking.