The Global Impacts of the Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal - Including for New Zealand

NEWS | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA

Written by Caeden Tipler (they/them) | @caedentipler | Contributing Reporter

It’s the biggest entertainment news story of the decade - Warner Bros. put itself up for sale late last year, leading to a public bidding war between two industry giants: Paramount Skydance and Netflix. 

The ensuing battle was worthy of Hollywood. 

Paramount successfully launched a hostile takeover, backed by the billionaire Ellison family. The studio and its very determined chief executive, David Ellison, circumvented Warner Bros. management, who were in negotiations with Netflix, and went straight to the shareholders with a much higher bid. 

The ironic part is that the Warner Bros. sale comes at the end of a hugely commercially and critically successful year for the studio. The past year includes Academy Award-nominated films like Sinners, One Battle After Another, and Weapons, as well as beloved shows like The White Lotus. 

However, Warner Bros. has a complex history of terrible mergers, leaving it in a bad financial position. The company owes an estimated US$35 billion in debt, and industry disruption, including the rise of streaming, has left Warner Bros. in a challenging position. Likewise, Paramount is underperforming financially and could benefit from iconic Warner Bros. franchises like Harry Potter and the DC Universe. 

The deal is one of the biggest in entertainment history, and will have massive ramifications across the media landscape. Lawmakers in the United States are concerned about the monopolisation of streaming, which could lead to price hikes, lower pay for workers, repetitive content, and less creative control for producers, cast, and crew. These are all ramifications that could play out on a global stage, including in New Zealand.

The deal still has to be approved by the US government, notably the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, which has the authority to block takeovers. This may be positively influenced by President Donald Trump, especially due to his close ties with the Ellison family. The deal is expected to close in Q3 of 2026, but it is dependent on DOJ approval. 

Paramount doesn’t have a serious streaming service, so part of the appeal of Warner Bros. is its ownership of HBO Max. Right now in New Zealand, HBO content is hosted on Neon, owned and operated by Sky. However, Neon is set to lose its rights to this content when HBO Max launches its own streaming service in New Zealand in mid-2026. It is not yet known how the Paramount buy-out could impact this. 

There is a Warner Brothers production arm based in New Zealand, and they make popular TV shows like the New Zealand variations of The Block, The Bachelor and Bachelorette, and RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under. 

Rachel Daniels, lecturer in communication studies at AUT, says the deal could mean fewer productions made in New Zealand. She also notes that we may lose some of our culturally diverse content.

In the context of similar mergers, Daniels says, “we start to see content replaced by standardisation or sameness. [...] We want to make sure that you still see diverse content being made, and original stuff being made, and stuff that isn’t just the same.”

There’s also the question of whether these big studios will continue to come to New Zealand to make films, and how this could affect smaller New Zealand production companies' chances of getting films made and distributed.

Debate approached Warner Bros. International Television New Zealand for comment, but they declined our request. 

This deal could also have huge ramifications for the news media, and by extension, democracy. Paramount already owns CBS News; Annie Goldson, professor in media at the University of Auckland and documentary filmmaker, has expressed concerns about the same organisation acquiring CNN, which is currently owned by Warner Bros. 

“A corporate takeover could well see journalists fired, which is not only unpleasant for individual workers but also reduces opportunities for genuine and diverse reportage that we can then draw upon to understand the world and each other.”

“Although CNN and CBS are based in the US, American politics and decision-making impacts heavily on us all - hence having watchdogs scrutinising power is critically important wherever we live.”

Since Paramount Skydance took control of CBS News, they have been criticised for political interference. The editor-in-chief appointed last year, Bari Weiss, has been criticised for censorship, including for pulling a 60 Minutes story on the deportation of Venezuelan men to an El Salvadorian prison. 

The Ellison family are closely allied to Donald Trump, who has publicly stated his dislike of CNN. There is concern that Paramount taking over CNN could weaken its editorial independence. 

Goldson also notes this in the larger context of the current news media landscape. “We have seen Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post, another highly significant US news outlet. He too has proven to be an ‘interventionist’ owner, impacting editorial content and recently laying off a significant chunk of the workforce.”

“We have our own apparent billionaire too - the Auckland-based Canadian Jim Grenon, who not only launched the publication The Centrist but also is a powerful shareholder in the NZ Herald, part of the NZME suite of media outlets, which remains an important player in the news ecosystem in Aotearoa. How this may impact editorial content is the big question again if our news media is to remain free from interference.”