I had not planned to spend so much time in today’s newsletter covering Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, but a lot is happening on that front today.
One question no one at Paramount - including David Ellison - has been willing to answer is how the company plans to follow through with its promise that the combined companies will release 30 “high-quality” theatrical films per year. Not only is that an increase over what the two studios are releasing now, they would have to do after cutting at least $6 billion of spending from the company.
My hunch is that if the deal is eventually closed, Paramount will shift the target to “eventually 30 per year” or blame the contentious merger battle for its inability to afford that level of content spending.
Wait, I Thought Paramount Suggesting They Would Leave California Was Supposed To Stop This?
Earlier today twelve states filed a lawsuit to block Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The suit claims the merger would impact “audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.”
This proposed $110 billion merger, the largest in Hollywood history, would extinguish competition between Paramount and Warner Bros. and inflict substantial harm on movie theatres, basic cable distributors, and, ultimately, audiences nationwide.
The merger combines two of the nation’s five major film distributors, leaving only four to control over 85 percent of all wide release theatrical films in the United States.
It combines two of the five major owners of basic cable channels, leaving only two (the combined company and Disney) to control 59 percent of all basic cable in the United States.
After this merger, for every dollar generated by wide-release theatrical films and basic cable channels in this country, the combined company will pocket more
than a quarter. This merger, in short, would create a media behemoth.
The most prominent media defender of David Ellison and Paramount is NY Post columnist Charles Gasparino, who not only has spent the last six months serving as the Ellison camp’s media stenographer, he also has become an example of the dangers of letting your partisan political feelings overwhelm your common sense.
In a piece from late last night entitled “Antitrust Lawsuit On Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Is Just A Ploy To Stoke Anti-Trump Hate Before The Mid-Terms,” and in it is his typical mix of political talking points and grievances, along with a bit of actual industry insight:
The case is a dud on antitrust grounds, they said. There’s very little overlap when you combine these companies. Where overlap exists (in terms of two big studios, streaming services), consumer-pricing concerns are negligible given the vast changes going on in the media business.
"So why the hell do we have to worry about this?" came the obvious question from one senior executive during the sit-down.
The answer, the lawyers said, is "politics."
Indeed, that should be the headline when the lawsuit is filed by a coterie of ambitious Democrats, as is expected sometime in the coming days. But it won’t be front and center of the coverage, of course, because most reporters genuflect to the left even when it's absurd to do so.
That take is vastly different than the case laid out by the state AG’s. And whether or not you agree with their argument, claiming this is just about politics is - to be kind - nuts.
For all the partisan hatred of Donald Trump, the thought that somehow a dozen state AG’s are conspiring to somehow damage the President and the Republican Party’s mid-term election by filing an anti-merger lawsuit is an impressive jump of logic. Although it does show that even supporters believe Donald Trump is very invested in David Ellison’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
On a related note, the lightweight “exclusive” posted last night by Semafor has not held up so well less than 24 hours later:
As California tries to derail Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount CEO David Ellison’s friends and advisers have been pushing the media executive to consider shifting his business out of the state.
Ellison’s confidantes have pushed him to consider moving its corporate headquarters and reallocating much of its $30 billion in planned spending outside the state if California Attorney General Rob Bonta were to sue to stop the merger, according to people familiar with the discussions.
No decisions have been made, these people said, and the considerations may just be a show of brinkmanship, given so much of the industry’s production takes place outside of Hollywood already. Under the current deal, Paramount has committed to keeping both companies’ lots operational if it remains in California.
Given the timing of the story, I can’t help thinking that someone on the Ellison side pitched this to Semafor because they knew this lawsuit was coming and they were making a last-ditch effort to slow the process.
Paramount Pushes Back On Claims In Lawsuit
Just as I was finishing off this newsletter, Paramount issued a press release attempting to refute the claims in the lawsuit filed by the 12 state AG’s:
America250: The PBS Story
Being sick with COVID for nearly three weeks impacted a lot of my plans, including my month-long celebration of everything PBS.
I have managed to post seven pieces so far this month, which is half of what I had scheduled. But I will be back on my at least one-piece-a-day plan beginning today and all of the pieces can be found at https://toomuchtv.beehiiv.com/t/the-pbs-story.
I’ll highlight the upcoming pieces here in the newsletter as they are being posted.
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The Wild World of the Van Gogh Truthers
A small but vocal crew of amateur sleuths are intent on exposing what they describe as “the art world’s biggest cover-up”: the murder of Vincent van Gogh. Read the article for free today.
Odds & Sods
Theo Burrell
Here is a look at everything you need to know about MLB’s Home Run Derby, which streams tonight at 8:00 p.m. om Netflix.
Netflix has signed a deal with creator Alan Chikin Chow, to license a library of episodes of his show Alan’s Universe. Upcoming episodes of the show will also receive a same-day release on both YouTube and Netflix. In January, Netflix announced a deal with Chow for a new scripted series.
Mourinho, doc series about legendary football manager Jose Mourinho will premiere Tuesday, August 11th on Netflix.
I have been playing around with the beta of Encore, which describes itself as “Letterboxd, but for concerts.” I’m not sure if it’s for me, but it’s an interesting idea.
Theo Burrell, Antiques Roadshow Star, dies at 39, months after her wedding.
Netflix’s new adaptation of the beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder book series Little House On The Prairie leaves out some of the most fascinating details from the author’s life—from Pa Ingalls’s ineptitude to the serial killers that stalked Kansas during her childhood.
Netflix Insiders Push Back On The Declining Engagement Numbers Storyline
As you may or may not know, I have a content-sharing deal with Forbes in which I can provide pieces of mine of my choosing to debut on the site. Forbes receives a five-day exclusive before I can post them elsewhere. And that isn’t great for breaking news stories. But Forbes does have an amazing SEO operation and posting something there provides me a with much wider audience than I receive here.
But there are challenges, including the fact they can edit the pieces to fit their editorial guidelines.
All of which is a long way of saying that the piece on Netflix I posted last night on Forbes isn’t quite what I had planned, but it still makes the points that I wanted it to. Which is that I have spoken to a number of Netflix insiders over the past week and they felt the need to push back on some of the stories that were posted this week about the streamer:
Which brings me to Netflix adding “live” channels.
It was mentioned as part of the Wall Street Journal story, and a number of reporters jumped immediately to “Netflix wants to turn into Pluto or Tubi – which is a serious misread of the situation.
The WSJ piece mentioned live channels, but didn’t really specify what that would look like. But one thing that is almost certain is that it won’t include Netflix becoming the new home for the 24/7 UFO Mysteries FAST channel.
When Netflix talks about live channels, it is talking about curated channels that feature programming already on Netflix. And this is an idea it has been circling around for years.
What’s Coming Tonight And Tomorrow
MONDAY, JULY 13TH:
All-American Season Eight Premiere (The CW)
Dancing With The Stars: The Next Pro Series Premiere (ABC)
Golden Kamuy -The Abashiri Prison Raid (Netflix)
Hot Ones: Extra Heat Series Premiere (Netflix)
Murder 101 Series Premiere (Prime Video)
120 Hours Behind Bars (Discovery)
Pitmasters Series Premiere (Food)
The 1% Club Season Premiere (Fox)
The Quiz With Balls Season Premiere (Fox)
TUESDAY, JULY 14TH:
Homestead Rescue: Intervention Series Premiere (Discovery)
Quarterback Season Premiere (Netflix)
Return To Paradise Season Premiere (BritBox)
The Real Wolf Of Wall Street (Paramount+)