{"id":1015603,"date":"2026-06-09T15:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1015603\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:44:21","slug":"paramount-warner-merger-investigated-by-uk-competition-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1015603\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount-Warner Merger Investigated By UK Competition Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe UK\u2019s antitrust authority has launched a formal investigation into the $110 billion merger between <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/paramount\/\" id=\"auto-tag_paramount\" data-tag=\"paramount\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/warner-bros-discovery\/\" id=\"auto-tag_warner-bros-discovery\" data-tag=\"warner-bros-discovery\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> (WBD).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday that it had opened a \u201cmerger inquiry\u201d into the deal that will reshape the global entertainment industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe CMA will commence its so-called Phase 1 investigation from Wednesday, under which it will determine whether the Paramount-Warner pact poses a \u201crealistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe CMA intends to conclude the Phase 1 process by August 7. If the threshold is met, the competition watchdog will move to a deeper Phase 2 investigation, which can last for more than five months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIf the CMA does proceed to a more detailed analysis, it will raise serious questions about Paramount\u2019s ambition to close the WBD takeover in the third quarter of this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe CMA opened the Phase 1 investigation after initially <a data-id=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/04\/paramount-warner-uk-competition-watchdog-seeks-views-1236859404\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/04\/paramount-warner-uk-competition-watchdog-seeks-views-1236859404\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seeking comments on the deal in April<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAntitrust work is also ongoing in the European Union, where a Phase 1 investigation is underway with a deadline of July 7. Competition scholars have predicted that a Phase 2 investigation is likely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBloomberg reported this week that Paramount is prepared to divest some of its children\u2019s TV network assets to clear any regulatory hurdles in the EU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/paramount-skydance-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount Skydance<\/a>\u00a0CEO\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/01\/david-ellison-uk-culture-secretary-paramount-warner-bros-1236684574\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Ellison visited the UK earlier this year<\/a>\u00a0as part of a charm offensive of European regulators. He met with UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy, as well as prominent European creatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s antitrust authority has launched a formal investigation into the $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1015604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,183984,2590,16,15,47689],"class_list":["post-1015603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-david-ellison","tag-paramount","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116720924813307827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1015604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}