Paramount CEO says politics drives Warner merger fight

Paramount CEO David Ellison said on August 4 that politics, not market-share concerns, was driving the legal battle over his proposed $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

His comments, made in an opinion piece published by The New York Times, came as a federal judge set a March 2027 trial date for antitrust challenges to the merger. Paramount Skydance agreed late last month to delay the deal until June 2027 while the lawsuit seeking to block it moves forward.

Ellison wrote that the fight “is not really about market share” and said the issue was whether he could be trusted as a steward of Warner's CNN.

Twelve US states challenging the deal say the combined company would control about 27 percent of wide-release theatrical film distribution and a similar share of basic cable channel licensing.

The proposed deal would include CNN, one of the largest US cable news networks and a frequent target of criticism from US President Donald Trump. The Trump administration approved the deal on June 12 without demanding changes.

Ellison said he held views across the political spectrum and did not want newsrooms to bend to his own views. “I believe that news should be based on facts and truth,” he wrote.

Ellison's Skydance acquired CBS News in mid-2025. Around the same period, CBS reached a $16 million settlement with Trump over coverage of presidential candidate Kamala Harris. After CBS became part of Paramount Skydance, the company brought in Bari Weiss to lead its news division, and many CBS News journalists quit, alleging curbs on their editorial independence.