What the Paramount-Warner Merger Means for Hollywood

The plan for Paramount Skydance Corp. to take control of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the owner of one of Hollywood’s largest and most venerable film studios, is likely to impact the entertainment industry for decades to come. After a monthslong battle for the company’s assets, Paramount outbid Netflix Inc., the world’s dominant streaming platform, by agreeing to pay $111 billion for Warner Bros. The deal still requires regulatory approval.

Streaming has changed the way movies and TV shows are distributed, putting pressure on legacy media companies by cutting into revenue from cable subscriptions and advertising as well as movie ticket sales. In a bid for a bigger share of the streaming economy, David Zaslav engineered a 2022 merger between Warner and Discovery Inc., the producer of low-cost unscripted programming that he ran.