Paramount Skydance offered the the European Commission concessions in order to push through the approval of its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
As reported last week, the company met with the Commission to discuss conditions of the approval, which could result in Paramount dropping its joint venture with Universal Pictures to distribute films in Europe. However, specifics about the conditions and the new concessions have not been released.
Following that meeting, the European Commission confirmed today that it “commitments were submitted,” according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. With that filing, a new provisional deadline has been set for July 22. That deadline was originally July 7.
While this marks another step forward in having the deal approved, Paramount still faces some hurdles. Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, submitted a statement this week to inform the company that she may intervene in the deal based on “public interest considerations” under the Enterprise Act 2002.
Nandy believes there may be reason for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate “plurality of persons with control of media enterprises” as the merger would include a wide range of channels and services available to UK audiences like Channel 5, TNT Sports, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, CNN International, Paramount+ and HBO Max.
While a situation like this isn’t necessarily covered by the Enterprise Act, Nandy believes this merger may need to be examined to set a precedent for future deals that involve streaming.
In her statement, Nandy writes: “As the legislation was drafted at a time where viewing was largely via broadcast linear channels, it does not cover the effect of a merger on streaming or video-on-demand services,” she said. “I believe this ought to be able to be considered in relation to this and all future media mergers given the role on-demand viewing now plays in the market.”
The merger was approved by shareholders in April and approved by the DOJ earlier this month, after it was determined that the deal did not pose a threat to competition in the US. California and New York are planning to fight that decision with a lawsuit and last week, three Democratic senators asked the FCC to hold off on approving the deal until an investigation could look into whether foreign investments in the company could pose a threat.
