Why Hollywood Is Afraid of the Paramount-WBD Deal
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How does Paramount, an old-guard studio and media institution, buying Warner Bros., another of the same, change the landscape in Hollywood, on cable, and in news?
Guest: Julia Alexander, media correspondent for Puck News.
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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, it's Lizzie. Quick favor before we start. If you enjoy listening to us on Spotify, |
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| 0:27.9 | All right, here's the show. |
| 0:34.1 | When it became clear that Paramount was going to win the bidding war for Warner Brothers Discovery, |
| 0:40.0 | Julia Alexander had one reaction. |
| 0:43.5 | Money talks. |
| 0:48.1 | Julia is a media correspondent at Puck News. |
| 0:52.0 | In this industry, money talks. |
| 0:54.8 | What I will tell you is that talking to people inside Warner Brothers Discovery, |
| 1:01.0 | many of whom have been around since Time Warner Days, |
| 1:05.2 | are looking at their third or fourth major acquisition and merger. |
| 1:09.8 | The mood in the room once they accepted the Netflix deal was |
| 1:14.8 | rather jovial. |
| 1:16.0 | It seemed for a while that WBD would be sold to Netflix, and WBD people like that idea. |
| 1:22.6 | It was rather hopeful. |
| 1:23.8 | It was this idea that they would finally be part of a growth business. |
| 1:36.5 | And now it's like talking to the cast of Apocalypse now in terms of preparing for another many, many years of just deep cuts and concerns. |
| 1:38.0 | Wow, it's that grim. |
| 1:39.4 | It's grim. |
... |
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