met with U.K. Secretary of Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy<\/a> to discuss issues in the film and TV industry and his bid for Warner Bros. Discovery in January.<\/p>\nIn its notice, the CMA said that it has \u201creceived the necessary information from the parties to commence pre-notification,\u201d but has not yet launched a formal investigation into the transaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cEffective competition helps ensure UK customers can enjoy quality content at a competitive price. The film and TV industries contribute billions to our economy, so it\u2019s important we assess whether deals between studios may harm competition,\u201d a CMA spokesperson told TheWrap. \u201cToday\u2019s invitation to comment is an initial step as we review Paramount\u2019s purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. We expect to launch our Phase 1 investigation in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under a Phase 1 review, the CMA would have 40 working days to decide whether the merger needs a more in-depth review. If it finds concerns with the merger, it will give the merging businesses five days to propose remedies to address its concerns.<\/p>\n
The CMA would then have up to 5 more working days to consider the remedies. If none are offered or it does not accept them, the merger would be referred to a Phase 2 review. If if decides to accept remedies provisionally, it would publicly consult on them and consider any responses, with a deadline of 50 working days to make a decision.<\/p>\n
If the review moves to Phase 2, an independent \u201cinquiry group,\u201d which consists of 3 to 5 people with a range of business, finance, economic and legal experience, would lead the investigation and makes the final decision\u00a0within 24 weeks. In special circumstances, a Phase 2 investigation can be extended by up to eight additional weeks.<\/p>\n
The inquiry group would then either clear the merger, consider remedies such as asset divestitures or a legal commitment from the merging businesses to behave in a certain way, or block the merger.<\/p>\n
The CMA\u2019s move comes after the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period in the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s review expired on Feb. 19. Despite the expiration, the DOJ can still investigate or challenge a Paramount-WBD deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warner Bros. logo displayed on the water tower at Warner Bros. (Credit: Mario Tama\/Getty Images) The United Kingdom\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,183984,393,4884,1144,251724,2590,712,16,15,1764,1082,47689],"class_list":["post-891422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-david-ellison","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-northern-ireland","tag-paramount-warner-bros","tag-paramount","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales","tag-warner-bros","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116398075582783243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891422","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=891422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Warner](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ec5f7a9b98a72d1db1859d297f19bb0a.jpeg\")
Warner Bros. logo displayed on the water tower at Warner Bros. (Credit: Mario Tama\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n