The Brewing Backlash to Hollywood Consolidation

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Jonathan Kanter, a lawyer who served as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2021 to 2024, to look at the looming Warner Bros. Discovery sale from an antitrust perspective, highlight the biggest antitrust issues for each potential bidder (Paramount, Comcast, Netflix), whether consolidation is necessary to compete with Big Tech, the government’s influence over this merger, and the perilous state of existence for media companies in 2025 (02:28). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetown@spotify.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Jonathan Kanter Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's beginning to smell a lot like Spritzmess.
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0:22.0	Think perfume.
0:22.9	Think the perfume shop this Christmas.
0:25.1	Teas and Seas Apply.
0:26.1	Visit theperfumeshop.com for more.
0:29.0	It is Wednesday, November 19th.
0:32.0	This sale of Warner Brothers Discovery is pretty much the only thing people in town want to talk about these days.
0:37.1	In particular,
0:37.9	the possible disappearance of another one of the original Hollywood studios. If you've ever been
0:42.8	in the Warner's lot in Burbank, it's maybe the nicest of all the studios. It's got tons of history,
0:47.2	going back 100 years, everything from the Clint Eastwood scoring stage to the Friends Fountain.
0:52.8	But with the initial bids for the company due on November 20th,
0:56.5	three main suitors have emerged so far.
0:58.8	Paramount, backed by the Ellison family and their insane wealth.
1:02.1	They want to buy all of Warner Discovery.
1:04.2	Both Comcast and Netflix are interested in just the studios and streaming side.
1:09.0	That's HBO Max, the Warner Studio, and that great
1:11.7	studio lot. All three of these potential deals will trigger heavy antitrust review, and potentially
	...

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