Drama surrounding Netflix-Warner deal: Paramount goes to court

Luca Fontana

13-1-2026

Translation: machine translated

The historic streaming deal ends up in court for the time being: Paramount sues Warner Bros. Discovery and openly disputes the Netflix deal. A billion-euro takeover degenerates into a political and legal power struggle.

What began as a historic mega-deal is increasingly becoming a legal hot potato. No sooner has the dust settled around Netflix's planned takeover of Warner Bros. than Paramount ignites the next stage of escalation and goes to court. The accusation: Warner Bros. Discovery is concealing crucial details about the Netflix deal from its shareholders.

The streaming drama enters the next round. And it is becoming increasingly personal.

What's happened so far - the short version

Netflix wants to buy Warner Bros Discovery. More precisely, the studio and streaming business including Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO, but excluding the linear TV channels such as CNN, Eurosport and the Discovery Channel. The agreed purchase price: 82.7 billion dollars. A deal of historic dimensions that would suddenly make Netflix the most powerful streaming service and content owner in the industry - if Netflix isn't already.

Paramount, which has also been courting Warner Bros. for months, does not want to accept this. The freshly merged group around Skydance therefore submitted a hostile 108.4-billion-dollar offer for Warner Bros. Discovery's entire company. Hostile means that the offer was addressed directly to the shareholders: they were supposed to put pressure on their own board of directors and thus prevent the Netflix deal themselves.

Nothing came of it. In a communication to shareholders, Warner's Board of Directors described the offer as «inferior» and associated with «considerable risks and costs». There was no rebellion. Warner declined accordingly. Paramount then followed up with an improved offer. But Warner stuck with the Netflix deal.

Now the matter ends up in court.

The new escalation: Paramount goes to court

Paramount is suing Warner Bros. Discovery and demanding access to key details of the Netflix contract. Specifically, it is about the valuation of the deal and the question of whether Netflix's offer is actually financially superior.

Paramount CEO David Ellison put it in unusually sharp terms: Warner gave many reasons why it did not want to negotiate with Paramount - but never explained why the Netflix deal was objectively better. A statement that sounds less like legal precision engineering than an open declaration of war.

In addition, Paramount wants to nominate its own candidates for its board of directors at Warner's next general meeting. In the USA, bidders are allowed to directly solicit shareholder votes. If this is successful, board members close to Paramount could put the brakes on the Netflix deal internally, have it re-evaluated or force a new review of the Paramount offer.

Why this is dangerous for Warner

For Warner Bros. Discovery, this lawsuit is more than just a nuisance. It hits the company at a sensitive point: its transparency towards its shareholders.

Paramount is not sowing doubts about the valuation for no reason. Antitrust authorities still have to approve the deal first and, on top of that, the shareholders still have to approve the planned spin-off of the linear TV channels. Only then can the sale to Netflix be finalised. Every legal side issue costs time, and the longer the Netflix deal is in limbo, the more difficult it will be for Warner to sell it to the antitrust authorities as having no alternative.

And Netflix?

For Netflix, this is all one thing above all: disruptive. Strategically, however, the streaming giant is still in pole position and is willing to be patient: HBO, DC, Harry Potter, Warner Bros. Pictures - this endlessly exploitable content package won't be in the sales window a second time. And Netflix knows that.

However, the louder the dispute gets, the more the dark sides come into focus: it's about market power, possible massive price increases and much less competition in the already overheated cinema and streaming market. Arguments that antitrust authorities around the world are listening to very closely.

Ironically, HBO Max - also part of Warner Bros. - officially launched in Switzerland and Germany today of all days. So while consumers are just starting to stream «The Pitt», «A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms» or «One Battle After Another», there are arguments in the background about who will own this catalogue in future.

Political thriller instead of consolidation

What is happening here is not a normal struggle for synergies. It is a highly political power struggle for sovereignty of interpretation in the streaming age.

After all, Paramount is trying to buy time and sow doubt without being above all doubt itself: The company is backed by Larry Ellison, of all people, a close confidant of Donald Trump. Should Paramount still win, CNN, one of the last news channels openly critical of Trump, would slip into his political power structure - a scenario that has long been causing nervousness in Washington.

Whether Paramount can still overturn the deal remains questionable, however. The only thing that is clear is that this case will not be over quickly. And the longer it takes, the less Hollywood feels like a dream factory and more like a very expensive courtroom with popcorn. Actually not such a bad template for a dark political series.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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