What did happen at that White House meeting, Netflix?
There’s a very early series episode of How I Met Your Mother in which Marshall (Jason Segel) has a toothache and goes to a nightclub with his friends. He goes into a bathroom in extreme pain, which is miraculously gone when he steps out of the bathroom.
The narrator pipes in: Now to this day, I don't know what happened in there. But when Marshall came out a few minutes later… [vision shows: Marshall comes out happy and relieved].
When Netflix’s Ted Sarandos went to the White House on the afternoon that the deal to buy Warner Bros fell through, I don’t know what happened in there, but by the end of that afternoon he was a changed man.
Today there’s an interview with Sarandos by Lucas Shaw at Bloomberg.
In regards to that Washington meeting, Sarandos is talking about it the same way that he has been talking about the deal for the last few weeks: it was all part of the process:
We were on a normal regulatory path. I was in DC on Thursday for a scheduled meeting with DOJ from a couple weeks ago to go through some questions about the deal. It was a very productive meeting, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing had shifted or changed dramatically that hauled me to DC.
He is then asked by Shaw about the Senate hearing that he fronted where the Republicans were very vocal about being against it. Sarandos says that the DOJ were still going by the book:
This was completely normal. This story has been fed out for everybody, but it’s just not accurate. We were not only involved with the DOJ, we were involved with 50 regulatory bodies around the world. These things have been going exactly the way they should.
It was not a group of bipartisan AGs. It was a group of Republican AGs. This deal is approved by the Department of Justice, not by the Senate or by the committee. The president stayed completely neutral on this. The DOJ was doing what they do, and they had been quite diligent.
He later takes a swipe at Paramount about how it behaved around the process:
It should be highly scrutinized the way I’m glad that ours was highly scrutinized. It should be looked at with every bit of the same microscope. Remember, we were asked to go and testify. David and I both were. I came.
That aligns with what Rick Ellis reported in his newsletter over the weekend:
I was told by sources the conversation was described to them as “cordial.” But it was also clear that the President still wanted Susan Rice to leave her post on the board. And there was apparently a veiled series of suggestions about possible ways Netflix could “ease concerns” about the merger. Including some sort of public statement stating Netflix’s commitment to producing more “traditional” programming.
What was really said in that White House meeting has some question marks surrounding it still, despite the disciplined messaging by Sarandos.
It does seem like there was a certain amount of kissing of the ring that needed to take place. It is surprising to me that in amid all of this, Susan Rice didn’t step down from the board.
Sarandos says in the Bloomberg interview that he didn’t contemplate taking her off the board (But also, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t suggested to her that she should think about it).
I don’t want or expect our board members to be out talking about politics ever, let alone in the middle of a deal, but they do have the right to speak, and she wasn’t speaking for Netflix.
The thing about all of this that just doesn’t sit right with me was that it was clear that Paramount still had some wriggle room in terms of what it would be willing to pay. Surely Netflix knew there was a strong possibility that Paramount would take its offer to at least $31, which is what happened. Why open the door to the seven day offer period if Netflix wasn’t prepared to go slightly higher with its spend?
Yeah, Netflix’s share price was being pummelled. But that was happening since October.
I have no doubt that Netflix was right near the top of where they felt the deal was worthwhile, but Netflix had gone through so much to make this deal happen, only to let it fall apart right at the end because it permitted WBD to negotiate further.
The Netflix narrative that at the end it all came down to not being willing to match the Paramount offer doesn’t sit right.
Since the deal fell apart, Netflix’s stock price has started to rebound (up 15%) and WBD has paid a $2.8 billion termination fee to Netflix. And CNN staff are freaking out (justifiably) about what Paramount ownership will mean for its journalism – they have seen what has happened to CBS News in recent months.
In fact, all staff at Paramount and Warner Brothers should be concerned right now. Again, quoting Sarandos:
This deal is dependent on a lot of cost-cutting. We were in the books of Warner Bros., and the biggest cost centers are people in productions. There’ll be cuts in excess of $16 billion. They are telling people who lend them the money that’s gonna happen in 18 months or so. It would be less production, less people working.
I was baffled by the attitude of a lot of the sentiment surrounding Netflix purchasing Warner Bros – it always struck me that with far less duplication between what Netflix does and what Warner Bros did, there would be far less impact on staff. But with almost a complete duplication of services and products, the blood will be flowing.
THR has a look at where there are significant crossovers between both companies that is worth a read.
Now, worth noting is that none of this is a done deal yet. There’s still a lot of process that needs to take place. The shareholders will almost certainly approve the deal (…almost certainly….), but then it needs to go through both US and European regulators.
The Dept of Justice will likely wave it on through (even though that duplication of business really should be reason enough not to let the deal happen). European regulators will have less of a problem with this than it likely would have with big tech Netflix, but there may still be hurdles along the way.
Where the bottle neck will likely happen is with state lawmakers. Just hours after the Paramount / Warner Bros merger was announced:
“Paramount/Warner Bros. is not a done deal,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Thursday. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.”
Other states will likely join in.
Ordinarily, I would suggest that this sort of legal challenge wouldn’t be worth paying much attention to. But, this seems to me like one of those lightning rods which should generate a lot more attention in the current political moment than it otherwise ordinarily would.
With Democrats keen to push back against Trump involvement in business, eager to rebuke business leaders like David Ellison who has done a lot to make Paramount a Trump-friendly media org, and a general desire to prevent the rise of another right-leaning news business (which is likely the destiny for CNN under Ellison’s reign), there is tremendous incentive and enthusiasm to do what can be done to block the deal.
Worth a watch is this talk between Richard Rushfield and Matt Stoller talking about efforts to stop the deal from going through.
The deal may be done, but the story of this merger is only just beginning.
Has The Pitt been ICE’d?
The big story event in season one of HBO Max’s The Pitt was a mass shooter event at a music festival. Season two (from what I have seen of it so far) has skirted around a handful of storylines which edged towards being conversation magnets for viewers of the show. This week has a cyberattack which brings down all of the digital technology in the hospital and there’s another harrowing storyline coming up really soon that threatens to be this season’s PittFest event, but neither meet the same heightened level as conversation magnets.
The storyline that I expected everyone to start talking about this season is an upcoming episode involving ICE. But, I suspect the air has been let out of that balloon somewhat by turning the storyline into a conversation point several weeks in advance.
Series Executive Producer John Wells was interviewed on the podcast The Town where he commented on it and also made similar comments to The Daily Beast. He advised that HBO asked that the show offers a ‘balanced’ take on ICE.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where it’s a surprise,” The Pitt‘s lead producer, John Wells, said on Thursday. “And their response was, ‘Good story. Just make sure it’s balanced, and we’re not just treating the situation as if it doesn’t have other points of view.’”
“The thing we have to be careful about when we’re talking about any of these issues,” Wells said, “is to make certain that we’re actually presenting both points of view, because we’re not really in the business of preaching to the choir on this show.”
While the TV director didn’t hint at what the episode will include, he noted that “as long as it’s truthful,” he hopes viewers will “stick with” the show.
I’ve seen a number of commenters concerned that the show caved to network pressure and/or worry that HBO is even making requests like that. I think when people see the episode, they’ll see that wasn’t really something to be concerned about – the show handles it really, really well.
But what made the episode work was just the shock of the show doing an episode around the impact of ICE in the emergency room. I’m not sure that the show has that advantage now. It’ll be interesting to see how conversation forms around the episode now.
Related: Fans of The Pitt will dig this New York Times article on the makeup and effects work that goes into bringing the gross medical issues seen in the show to life.
News Desk
The 2026 Writers Guild Awards Los Angeles ceremony will be cancelled due to industrial action by its paid staff. Read: Variety
RIP Rob Grant. The co-creator of cult UK comedy Red Dwarf died at the age of 70. Read: Radio Times
ITV censored Geese drummer Max Bassin in his acceptance speech at the Brit Awards. His comments “I just want to say: free Palestine and f*** I.C.E.” were removed from broadcast with crowd noise added in its place. This was done in real time with a five second delay for the broadcast and not the two luxurious hours the BBC had with the BAFTA’s. Read: Deadline
Wilson Chapman at Indiewire puts forward the case for American Dad as the best animated show of the past 30 or so years because of its consistency. Read: Indiewire
Studio Lambert, the company behind The Traitors, Squid Game: The Challenge, and Naked Attraction, will produce the Monopoly board game adaptation for Netflix. Read: Deadline
A feature film base don UK comedy Ghosts will enter production in March. Ghosts: The Possession Of Button House will bring the TV series cast to life again, so to speak. Read: Screen Daily
Trailer Park
Still Shining debuts on Netflix March 6.
After falling in love as teens, two young adults drift apart - only to reunite 10 years later and confront their heartbreak, growth and new challenges.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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