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SanAndreasX 22 hours ago
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Signalstar said:
SanAndreasX said:

Bad idea. Blocking Netflix would automatically result in Trump basically handing WB over to Ellison. And given the mess the Ellisons have made of Paramount and CBS, that would be a disaster, both artistically and politically. Ellison would cancel South Park, except that Trey and Matt have the best legal team in the entertainment industry and made sure that any attempt Ellison made to fuck them over would be painful. Even so, it's speculated that Ellison is hindering them as much as he can legally get away with. 

Like it or not, a merger is going to happen, and Netflix is the least of the four evils in this scenario (the other three are Ellison, Comcast, and the Saudi PIF). 

I hope that a subsequent Paramount bid would also fail to pass, likely under the next (hopefully Democratic) administration. I don't want WB to be acquired at all. Hollywood consolidation has been terrible for the industry.  The most recent successes I can think of blocked mergers are JetBlue and Spirit and also HarperCollins and Penguin being blocked. We need more blocked mergers.

That's not going to happen. If the Trump administration blocked Netflix, they would absolutely fast-track Ellison's takeover of WB to make sure it was completed before the midterms. That's what they did for Paramount, especially after Ellison agreed to fire Stephen Colbert. Anything that helps Trump consolidate his grip on American media will get special attention from the government. And I can easily see Ellison turning Superman and Batman into Homelander (hell, look what MAGA did with Franklin the Turtle!)  and the next Barbie movie under Ellison's watch would have Barbie as a happy tradwife and Ken as a proud MAGA. 

I get it, I'm not happy with the consolidation that has happened in the movie OR the gaming industries. I was quite vocally against Microsoft's acquisitions of Bethesda and ABK, not that my opinion mattered any more than Satya Nadella's morning toilet-time. But these mergers are going to happen, whether we want it or not. Nobody cares what we think. 

Also, part of the reason why WB is in this position is that it is very badly managed under its current leadership. The Looney Tunes, once WB's bread and butter, are pretty much a zombie franchise now in the realm of other legacy IPs like Popeye and Little Orphan Annie. DC has been extremely hit or miss. WB's one resounding success in recent years was a an admittedly good movie based on a doll. And sadly, the Netflix buyout won't get rid of the Zaslav problem, though I would hope that Reed Hastings sees the value in IPs like Looney Tunes and reinstates them on Netflix Kids, maybe.