{"id":425427,"date":"2025-12-05T02:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425427\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T02:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:08:12","slug":"anonymous-a-listers-lobby-congress-against-netflix-wbd-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425427\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous A-Listers Lobby Congress Against Netflix-WBD Acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA consortium of top industry players have sent an open letter full of alarm to Congress, describing a potential economic and institutional meltdown in Hollywood if\u00a0Netflix<\/a> succeeds in its effort to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe letter was sent via email to members of Congress from both parties on Thursday from an anonymous collective identifying themselves only as \u201cconcerned feature film producers.\u201d The group explained it was leaving the letter unsigned \u201cnot out of cowardice\u201d but fear of retaliation given Netflix\u2019s considerable market power as a buyer and distributor. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tOne well-placed source confirmed to Variety that the group includes a number of prominent filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe communication outlines three areas of great concern, including that Netflix could stand to \u201cdestroy\u201d the theatrical film marketplace\u201d by escalating or eliminating the amount of time Warner Bros. films would play in theaters before hitting a combined Netflix-HBO Max streaming platform. Sources told Variety earlier on Thursday that Netflix\u2019s current proposal for Warner Bros. would have a theatrical window as thin as two weeks of exclusivity before debuting on streaming. Another insider familiar with the deal process flatly denied this, saying the periods would be longer. Rival bidders Comcast and Paramount both have robust theatrical distribution outlets. Paramount has specifically pledged to keep Warner Bros. operating as a standalone business that will make a minimum of 14 films for theaters per year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe producers argued that Netflix would \u201ceffectively hold a noose around the theatrical marketplace,\u201d with what they assert would be enough market power to reduce the footprint of theatrical movies and force down subsequent licensing fees paid in post-theatrical windows.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe letter to Congress also references the many times Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, has extolled that Netflix\u2019s business model has nothing to do with movie theaters (including a quote from a 2023 earnings call, where Sarandos said, \u201cDriving folks to a theater is just not our business\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe note concludes by urging members of the House and Senate to speak out publicly against the acquisition and afford the potential deal \u201cthe highest level of antitrust scrutiny.\u201d The stakes, the letter concludes, represent millions of jobs and a treasured art form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A consortium of top industry players have sent an open letter full of alarm to Congress, describing a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":425428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,4659,67,132,68,27281],"class_list":{"0":"post-425427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-netflix","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115664525991798051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}