Washington’s latest antitrust skirmish says less about consumers than it does about politics.
At a recent Senate hearing, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) warned that the proposed combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery would harm the public. It is a familiar claim among some politicians, but one that ignores the current realities of the streaming marketplace.
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Today, streaming is not a collection of equal players. It is a hierarchy. Exact subscriber estimates vary depending on the source, but one consistent thing is that Netflix dominates the streaming marketplace. With global reach and deep pockets, recent price increases have caused consumers and regulators alike to speculate on the company’s market and pricing power. There are two main paths to address these concerns: regulatory intervention, which comes with debatable success, or market forces that drive increased competition.
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For the second pathway, Paramount-Warner Bros. offers a solution.
Paramount alone does not have the scale to keep up with Netflix over time. Content budgets are rising, distribution is expensive, and audiences are global. Without size, even strong brands in the entertainment industry end up cutting back, not expanding.
A combined Paramount-Warner Bros. entity would increase competition. It would have a deeper library, broader distribution, and the financial capacity to invest in new programming that can actually challenge the market leader. The combined audiences, assuming limited overlap, would put it in much closer competition not just with Netflix but with Amazon Prime and Disney+/Hulu.
That is not just a win for the companies involved. It is a win for viewers. Stronger competitors put real pressure on prices, improve content quality, and expand choice. In a subscription market where consumers can cancel at any time, that pressure translates directly into better deals and better products.
That is also why serious thinkers inside the industry are responding differently from politicians.
While some politically minded actors have signaled opposition, AMC’s chief executive, Adam Aron, has backed the deal, arguing it would lead to more innovative offerings for movie audiences. James Cameron, one of Hollywood’s most successful directors, has voiced support as well, seeing the merger as a way to sustain large-scale filmmaking rather than shrink it.
Critics insist that consolidation means fewer films and less choice. But the Paramount Skydance CEO, now leading the deal, David Ellison, has said Paramount would keep its current film output. And again, studios with deeper pockets are better able to back major productions, absorb risk, and keep projects moving.
So what exactly is the consumer harm in this case?
When it comes to mergers, prices are the usual concern. But Netflix is the company that is most famous for price hikes, with prices increasing by 125% since 2014. The government blocking the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger would shield the market leader from competition, thereby increasing its ability to increase costs on its consumer base.
Choice is another argument often made against mergers. But here too, the logic is inverted. Blocking the deal would not create more viable competitors. It would leave one of them structurally weaker. Over time, that means fewer platforms capable of investing at scale, as well as fewer ambitious productions and less meaningful competition for the dominant player.
At that point, the criticism begins to look less like consumer protection and more like political discomfort.
Some of the loudest objections do not focus on prices, output, or consumer choice. They focus on who gains scale and influence, what the political ties are, and whether that outcome is desirable for “the magic that is art.” All such concerns fall outside the scope of antitrust.
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The streaming market does not need more fragmentation for its own sake. It needs credible challengers. The Paramount deal moves in that direction.
Competition, not politics, is the standard that should decide it.
Tirzah Duren is the president and CEO of the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. Follow Tirzah on X @tzduren.
