The seismic deal Netflix inked to buy Warner Bros. — with an eye-popping $83 billion value — will need to get approval from regulators in the U.S. and abroad. And domestically, there’s one individual whose opinion on the matter, President Donald Trump, is of central importance given the control he has exerted over federal agencies.
Trump has not publicly weighed in on a Netflix deal for Warner Bros. But the notion that Netflix would have excessive market power through its acquisition of HBO Max and Warner Bros.’s studios biz has gained traction in the White House — as well as among Republican and Democratic legislators.
On Friday, an unidentified senior official in the Trump administration said the White House has “heavy skepticism” about the proposed Netflix-Warner Bros. deal, CNBC reported. (The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment.) Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery said they expect to close the transaction in 12-18 months, pending WBD shareholder approval and regulatory clearances.
In the U.S., the deal faces an antitrust review by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission. (Reps for the DOJ and FTC declined to comment.) The Netflix-WBD deal wouldn’t require approval by the FCC, as the transaction does not involve any broadcast networks.
On Friday, Netflix execs expressed confidence that the WB deal will be approved. As a demonstration of its strong belief the deal will be OK’d, Netflix agreed to pay WBD a breakup fee of $5.8 billion if the deal fails to close “under certain circumstances relating to the failure to obtain approvals” or if U.S. or international regulatory bodies block the transaction, the streamer disclosed in an SEC filing.
“We’d say we’re highly confident in the regulatory process,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts on a call Friday morning. “This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it’s pro-creator, it’s pro-growth. And our plans here are to work really closely with all the appropriate governments and regulators, but [we are] really confident that we’re going to get all the necessary approvals that we need.”
Sarandos said the Netflix and Warner Bros. businesses are “complementary” and “they’re also loved businesses, which is really fantastic. Having been deep into this process, if we sound a little tired, it’s because we are. We have found this to be an incredibly rigorous and competitive process.” As to the potential for rival superseding bids coming in, he said, “We’ve signed our deal and we are running full speed towards regulatory approval.”
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David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, downplayed regulatory hurdles in a town hall with WBD employees Friday. “I think it’s a terrific fit. There’s very little overlap, in that we’re the biggest maker and producer of creative content in the world, and Netflix is has the biggest platform and tech and the best technology in the world,” Zaslav said.
At least initially, Netflix said, it would operate HBO Max and Warner Bros.’ studio operations independently. As part of that, Netflix said it will continue to release Warner Bros. movies in theatres — although eventually those release windows will shrink to be “much more consumer friendly,” Sarandos predicted.
But back to Trump: Does he approve of Netflix snapping up Warner Bros. and the HBO Max streaming service, which would represent a major consolidation of power in the industry?
Note that Trump is friendly with the Ellison family — and David Ellison was aggressively bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety, seeking to merge Paramount Skydance with WBD. Paramount Skydance alleged the board of Warner Bros. Discovery proceeded unfairly with a “myopic” bidding process “with a predetermined outcome” that favored Netflix. (Lawyers for WBD told the Paramount attorneys the board “attends to its fiduciary obligations with the utmost care” and that “they have fully and robustly complied with them and will continue to do so.”)
Trump has regularly praised David Ellison and his father, Oracle mogul and mega-billionaire Larry Ellison. In announcing a deal in September for TikTok’s U.S. operations to become 80% owned by a group of American investors, Trump said Larry Ellison would be a part-owner of the app. “Larry Ellison is great, and his son David is great. They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One in mid-October. And Trump recently pushed Paramount to move forward on “Rush Hour 4” from Bret Ratner because the president loves the action-comedy franchise.
Behind the scenes, Paramount has been steadily banging the drum in insisting that a Netflix-Warner Bros. union would be doomed from a regulatory perspective. In a letter this week to lawyers for WBD, Paramount warned that a sale to Netflix probably would “never close” because of regulatory challenges, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. “Acquiring Warner’s streaming and studio assets ‘will entrench and extend Netflix’s global dominance in a matter not allowed by domestic or foreign competition laws,’ Paramount’s lawyers wrote,” per the WSJ report.
Even if Trump opposed a Netflix deal to buy Warner Bros.’s streaming and studios businesses, that wouldn’t necessarily doom its chances of getting regulatory approval. Recall that during Trump’s first term, the Justice Department sued to block AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner on antitrust grounds — a move reportedly motivated by Trump’s hatred of CNN. But a federal judge ruled in favor of the companies and in February 2019 the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
Meanwhile, several Hollywood organizations, including the Writers Guild of America and theater-owner trade group Cinema United, have come out against the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal, arguing it will have a harmful impact on jobs and competition.
And politicos on both sides of the aisle are lining up against the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal. On Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called the proposed pact “an anti-monopoly nightmare” that would “create one massive media giant with control of close to half of the streaming market — threatening to force Americans into higher subscription prices and fewer choices over what and how they watch, while putting American workers at risk.” That came after Republicans have similar raised antitrust concerns. In a Nov. 13 letter to Trump administration officials, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), wrote, “With more than 300 million global subscribers and a vast content library, Netflix currently wields unequaled market power.”
Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese said in a research note that “significant concerns remain within the industry and among government officials” about a proposed Netflix deal for Warner Bros. The regulatory process “would be lengthy and difficult and may ultimately block the sale without clear assurances from the studio side,” she wrote.
Netflix has more than 300 million streaming subscribers worldwide (the company stopped reporting quarterly subscriber figures this year). Warner Bros. Discovery ended the third quarter of 2025 with 128.0 million streaming subscribers, a gain of 2.3 million subscribers from Q2. Those include customers of HBO Max as well as Discovery+ and its sports-streaming services.
Greg Peters, Netflix’s other co-CEO, acknowledged on the analyst call Friday that “there is a high overlap of existing HBO Max subscribers who are also Netflix subscribers. That number is quite large.”
But Peters suggested that combining HBO Max and Netflix under one roof would expand choice and yield other consumer benefits, implying the company would roll out price-discounted bundles. “You can think about the many, many Netflix members around the world who are not currently HBO Max subscribers and are not getting any value from that HBO Max titles, Warner Bros. titles,” he said. “And there’s a real opportunity, we think, of actually figuring out how do we bring more of those titles in the right way through some combination of plans and tiering, etc., to unlock the value in those assets.”
Netflix could argue that, even with the addition of HBO Max, it does not have any kind of monopoly on entertainment or even streaming.
Execs routinely point out on Netflix earnings calls that even in its most mature markets, including the U.S., Netflix represents less than 10% of total TV viewing (a stat meant to show it still has future growth opportunities). For example, during the month of October 2025, Netflix had an 8.0% share of U.S. TV viewing time, behind YouTube (12.9%), per Nielsen data. Warner Bros. Discovery, including HBO Max and Discovery+, had 1.3% share for the month.
Robert Fishman, an analyst with MoffettNathanson, wrote in a note Friday, “Ultimately, we think the likelihood of [regulatory] approval comes down to how successful Netflix will be in defining the market beyond the traditional media landscape to include other companies like YouTube, Amazon, and other digital players like TikTok and social media as they compete engagement across the total day.”
— Gene Maddaus and Jennifer Maas contributed to this article.
From Variety US