Last updated on April 20th, 2026
News broke Thursday in the Warner Bros./Netflix/Paramount merger saga, and it’s unfortunately the most feared, and worst possible, outcome. Netflix announced it’s pulling out of plans to buy Warner Bros., likely between increasing Trump administration pressure and Paramount’s hostile takeover bid raising Warner’s price. As such, that leaves Paramount as the new buyer and future owner of Batman, Bugs Bunny, and Scooby-Doo. Paramount and Warner Bros. finalized the agreement on Friday, valued at $110 billion.
The deal still needs to be approved by Warner shareholders, as well as face approval by federal, state, and international bodies. But assuming no obstacles emerge (the Ellisons, who own Paramount, are counting on their ties to Trump for an easy approval process), it marks the end of Warner Bros. as an independent studio and conglomerate, after a century of existence.
I’ve written before about why Paramount wants Warner Bros. so badly. But below, I outline the list of reasons why this Paramount/Warner deal is bad for all of us.
The end of Warner Bros. as an independent company
Warner Bros. has gone through numerous owners and corporate siblings over the decades—everyone from parking garage company to Time magazine’s owner to AT&T. But this time is definitely different. Unlike the previous companies (even Seven Arts), Paramount is a longtime, century-old major rival of Warner Bros., and owns numerous properties that overlap with Warner’s own.
With Paramount buying Warner Bros., that removes one of the major studios in Hollywood, reducing them to four: Paramount, Universal (owned by Comcast), Disney (who now own 20th Century Fox), and Sony (who own Columbia). Warner’s long history is now just reduced to being a subsidiary and brand to slap at the start of Batman movies, or a tile on Paramount+/HBO Max.
20th Century Fox stands out as the likely fate of Warner Bros.; in the late 2010s, Disney bought Fox’s assets, while changing its name to “20th Century Studios.” Today, 20th Century Studios is just a brand with an iconic fanfare (and tile on Disney+/Hulu) for Fox properties like “Predator,” while Disney+ gets to carry “The Simpsons” catalog. Not much of a fate for one of Hollywood’s oldest studios (dating to a merger in the Depression).
Even if buying Warner Bros. ends up being a poison pill for Paramount (as it was for AT&T, Discovery, etc.), as some hope, I don’t see Warner Bros. and its intellectual properties spun off on their own if it comes to that. The worst case scenario is likely the Ellisons selling off “Paramount, the home of SpongeBob and Superman.” You can forget about seeing Warner Bros. as an independent entity ever again.
Media consolidation
Speaking of one less studio, the issue of media consolidation are also significant. Media layoffs of this size bring numerous massive layoffs, selling off of assets, and shuttering divisions deemed redundant. You can likely say goodbye to the famous Warner Bros. studio lot and its also-famous water tower (*insert joke here about the Warner siblings from “Animaniacs” moving into Paramount’s own water tower*). After Disney bought Fox, they continued to lease its studio lot from Fox Corporation (i.e. the Fox network, Fox News, and other Murdoch-owned assets) until 2025. Instead of renewing their lease, Disney moved Fox’s assets to their own studio lot. Again, 20th Century Studios is just a branding/label at this point.
One less independent media conglomerate also means: fewer consumer choices; likely price hikes on streaming services; creators finding it harder to find work in Tinseltown; and so on.
Paramount’s own goals
Paramount’s own goals for all this, as I previously wrote, seem to be a mix of: general greed/expansion for its own sake; some of Warner’s properties being more popular and culturally ingrained than Paramount’s own; the Ellisons’ desire to be like the Murdochs (owning culturally prominent and popular entertainment, as well as an influential right-wing news outlet); and a lack of faith in the properties of the studio the Ellisons just bought.
The state of Paramount’s own properties doesn’t look good for Warner Bros.’s assets. Paramount’s current owners clearly have no clear vision or creative plan going forward for their own studio: Nickelodeon is (like the other traditional TV animation outlets) clearly on autopilot creatively; Paramount+ is somewhat popular, but still a secondary tier streaming service; they just lost a major showrunner, Taylor Sheridan, to elsewhere; and their movie slate basically consists of hoping Hasbro doesn’t yank the “Transformers” license/Tom Cruise doesn’t get bored and quit. Suddenly being in charge of Warner Bros.’s assets, from HBO to CNN, doesn’t look promising, especially when Warner Bros. just had one of its better years movie-wise.
The future of Warner Bros. properties
Of course, there’s the concern about what will happen to Warner Bros.’s properties.
I assume some assets might stay as-is: HBO is too popular as a brand to shut down the channel—though I imagine it’ll start airing Showtime properties like “Dexter.” I’m not sure what the future of HBO Max will look like, however: folded into Paramount+? Left as a stand alone service? DC Comics will still churn out Batman and Batman-related comics every Wednesday like clockwork, assuming the Ellisons don’t decide to cut costs by dialing back on or outright shuttering DC’s print side. DVDs and Blu-rays also seem likely to still get made (Paramount still churns out “Star Trek” and “SpongeBob” Blu-rays), but I’d be worried about the future of niche services like Warner Archive.
However, that doesn’t change that Paramount has a number of overlapping properties. Cartoon Network seems like it’s in trouble; between its declining timeslot space and ratings, I could see Paramount deciding to just make Adult Swim a 24-hour channel (similar to the one that exists in Canada), shut down Cartoon Network, and move its few shows over to Nickelodeon. Nick’s aired Warner Bros. shows in the past, including the “Looney Tunes” shorts and “Tiny Toon Adventures.”
But it’s CNN that especially seems like it’s doomed, under the right-wing owners of Paramount. For years, conservatives have hated CNN with a passion, and now they own one of the few major cable news channels. And based on what’s been done with CBS News, it doesn’t look good for CNN at all. This also leaves MS Now (formerly MSNBC) as the only cable news outlet that isn’t openly trying to be Trump bootlickers.
Warner Bros. franchises as propaganda?
There’s also concerns about the Ellisons’ views filtering into or directly influencing what gets produced, including future use of Warner Bros. properties. I doubt it’ll be something as overt as what’s being done to CBS News, or things such as Batman complaining in a movie about immigrants in Gotham, or making Kevin Sorbo the headliner for a summer blockbuster. However, I can see a “death by a thousand cuts” quiet shift. For instance, perhaps DC stops publishing annual Pride Month comics to “save money”/”focus on a different direction.” Another possibility is future kids’ TV shows starring fewer non-white characters, and not having any characters mention they have two Dads. There’s also the possibility of fewer films like “Sinners” getting greenlit—they surely believe in “hiring the best people for the job” (read: good luck, Ryan Coogler). I can also see fewer shows like “Heated Rivalry” obtained for HBO in the future, even if the show’s a big hit.
Never mind all this makes Paramount a less appealing conglomerate to work at, and harder to attract talent, on top of the inevitable layoffs. If I were Comcast or Disney (or even Netflix), I’d be ready to pop champagne over the upcoming boom in available talent.
What can we do?
I’ll still be writing about Paramount/Warner Bros. on the blog. However, the idea of giving the Ellisons money for Scooby-Doo/Superman Blu-rays doesn’t excite me. This deal also just cements that Paramount+ and HBO Max are services I likely won’t be subscribing to ever again.
For those that want alternative ways to watch Paramount and Warner Bros. cartoons on physical media, see my previous posts. However, an overall boycott of such a massive amount of properties isn’t easy (and again, probably one of the reasons for Paramount’s buyout). Even if you hate the right-wing direction CBS News is taking, never watching new material with the DC superheroes or “Game of Thrones” again might be a tall order.
Given this, the main options at this point (besides piracy) include:
- Cancel HBO Max, Paramount+, DC Universe Infinite, and any other digital services owned by Paramount/Warner Bros.
- Wait for Paramount and Warner Bros. films and TV shows to reach DVD/Blu-ray or non-Paramount/WB outlets (like Netflix). DVDs and Blu-rays can even be bought used, or checked out from the library for free.
- Free ad-supported streaming services such as Tubi are options, even if those have their own flaws.
- For DC’s comics, those can be checked out from the library, assuming one’s OK with trade paperbacks. Buying back issues or trade paperbacks (versus brand new “floppies” on Wednesdays) at comic shops might be another option?
- Find other material to watch or read that isn’t tied to Paramount or Warner Bros. Supporting independent, nonprofit or smaller creators is probably especially helpful these days, given ongoing media consolidation and Trump knee-bending.
As I’ve written before, my Jellyfin media server has a bunch of Paramount and Warner Bros. content I ripped from DVDs and Blu-rays, from “Scooby-Doo” to “Star Trek” to the 90s Batman movies. So no matter what happens to Warner Bros.’s properties under the Ellisons, at least my favorite TV shows and films are mine, I have plenty of material to watch, and I won’t be financially contributing to the home of Bari Weiss.
Image: “SpongeBob SquarePants” (Paramount); “Looney Tunes” (Warner Bros.)
