The Writers Guild of America East and Writers Guild of America West, jointly the WGA, have settled their lawsuit to block the proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery per a statement released by the organization Monday.
The settlement comes following the news that Paramount has reached a deal with 12 state attorneys general, removing a major obstacle to closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
“We continue to believe the merger will cause damage to writers and the industry at large. Now that the Attorneys General have settled with Paramount, however, as a nonprofit, the WGA must contend with the reality of forging ahead alone, with no backing from government enforcers, with a complex antitrust lawsuit that would cost millions of dollars to pursue through trial,” reads the statement.
The WGA also noted that while they “were not successful in blocking the merger,” the organisation’s “advocacy brought more attention to the harms that this merger—and others like it—will cause. We will continue to fight the harms of industry consolidation.”
The WGA filed the lawsuit to block the proposed $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance back in July. At the time, the organisation alleged it would violate federal antitrust law and would cause specific harm to writers.
“With fewer competitors, the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. entity would have both the incentive and the ability to lower costs by suppressing writers’ wages and reducing output. Writers will be paid less and have fewer employment opportunities,” the WGA complaint stated.
The WGA’s lawsuit was filed following a prior antitrust lawsuit by 12 Democratic state attorneys that same month, which similarly alleged that the merger would give Paramount-WBD anticompetitive power in theatrical and basic cable TV markets.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
Read the WGA’s full statement here:
“We continue to believe the merger will cause damage to writers and the industry at large. Now that the Attorneys General have settled with Paramount, however, as a nonprofit, the WGA must contend with the reality of forging ahead alone, with no backing from government enforcers, with a complex antitrust lawsuit that would cost millions of dollars to pursue through trial. Consequently, we have also settled our lawsuit with an agreement from Paramount to prohibit writer layoffs at CBS News Broadcast for 5 years, and to pay $17.5 million to our health fund along with our attorneys’ fees in the litigation.
Though we were not successful in blocking the merger, our advocacy brought more attention to the harms that this merger—and others like it—will cause. We will continue to fight the harms of industry consolidation.
As the number of outlets to sell our work to and the corresponding diversity of programming shrinks, we need industry-wide structural separation between streamers and studios in order to promote competition in programming, like the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules once required in broadcast television. We will continue to fight for these goals.”
From Variety US