The European Commission Approves Paramount’s Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery with Conditions

The European Commission has approved Paramount Skydance‘s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The approval does come with some conditions.

• Paramount must terminated its stake in a theatrical distribution joint venture with Universal Pictures called United International Pictures. This must be done within 13 months of the closing of the transaction.
• It can not go into an agreement or understanding with Universal to co-distribute films in the European Union for 10 years.
• The company can’t move the distribution of Warner Bros. films from their existing distributor to the one used by Paramount where that distributor also distributes Universal’s or Disney’s films in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.
• Paramount won’t shift its distribution of its films to the distributor used by Warner Bros. where that distributor also distributes Universal or Disney films.

The commission felt that there was enough competition for film production in the EU and US including Disney, Universal, Sony, MGM, A24, Lionsgate, and more. It also didn’t think there was issues when it came to the overlap in pay-tv channels, in particular for children.

The deal still has many hurdles to go before it’s completed. United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority must still approve the deal plus there’s multiple lawsuits including one brought by the attorneys general from a dozen states that has led to a temporary restraining order concerning the deal. Paramount has requested a speedy trial and skip a hearing regarding the restraining order.