WGA West president Michele Mulroney doubled down on the guild’s assertion amid the information that Paramount Skydance launched a hostile takeover bid to fight the Warner Bros. Discovery-Netflix mega-deal.
As Mulroney shared on the “Ankler Agenda” Monday, the Writers Guild doesn’t suppose both Netflix or Paramount shall be good for the trade and that they’ve refused to take a aspect within the bidding struggle.
“There is no such thing as a most popular winner,” Mulroney stated. “Our perception right here is that whoever wins, writers lose. There are issues with each of these acquisitions. So yeah, this isn’t purchaser particular. That is us taking a look at this as a large antirust subject the place we consider the federal government actually must step in.”
She continued: “This potential merge goes to not simply damage all trade staff however customers who all the time inevitably find yourself paying the price for these mergers. And, , the economic system. I imply, had been the theatrical enterprise to endure below Netflix possession, which we consider it might, that doesn’t simply affect our members, it it enormously impacts native economies.”
As we reported, the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East collectively denounced Netflix’s $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday.
“The world’s largest streaming firm swallowing one in all its greatest rivals is what antitrust legal guidelines had been designed to forestall,” the unions’ assertion learn.
“The end result would remove jobs, push down wages, worsen circumstances for all leisure staff, elevate costs for customers and cut back the quantity and variety of content material for all viewers,” it continued. “Business staff together with the general public are already impacted by just a few highly effective firms sustaining tight management over what customers can watch on tv, on streaming and in theaters. This merger should be blocked.”
Mulroney echoed these sentiments on Monday, standing by the WGA’s demand for the merger to be blocked — a stance which was not essentially taken by different unions.
“The WGA has been vigorously opposing merger consolidation and sounding the alarm in that area for a lot of, a few years now,” Mulroney stated. “We consider that additional contraction of this enterprise is extraordinarily dangerous to writers and all trade staff. And sure, the opposite guilds are taking their very own positions, and, it’s vital to notice although, none of them precisely got here out in favor of this. All people had issues and questions.”
She added: “We made a powerful assertion, which we stand by with our sister guild, the Writers Guild East. We consider this presents an enormous regulatory subject and we’d like the federal government to step in and and let the antitrust gears, , begin engaged on this potential merger as a result of we consider it has the potential to be extraordinarily damaging.”
The Producers Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, Teamsters and the DGA all have expressed concern relating to the acquisition.
