Decades of mergers and acquisitions have reduced the number of major U.S. media companies to a handful of transnational conglomerates that dominate the production and circulation of news, film, television, sports, games, and other forms of media and culture. If Paramount Skydance acquires Warner Bros. Discovery, not only will this newly-formed conglomerate be burdened with $79 billion of debt, it will struggle to respect competitive safeguards, serve consumer needs, cultivate the media industry’s long term health, and act in the broader interest of the public. 

A team of more than 20 media experts from universities across the U.S. and Canada have collaborated on this research to encourage the courts, government regulators, non-governmental organizations, legislators, and citizens to challenge this deal. While this study addresses some of the quantitative impacts of this potential merger, our scope is far wider. The thirteen sections of this study define consumer welfare, public interest, and healthy competition more broadly, and consider democratic objectives like fair media access for non-profit and public-serving organizations, the preservation of community cultural spaces like theaters and of community social events like sports, and the support of a diverse range of stories and storytellers. Having spent decades researching the many (often non-quantifiable) ways that media and culture shape our lives as citizens and individuals, we enumerate here what kinds of impacts we can expect from this deal, and why policymakers and the public should be so concerned.