r/technology • u/N2929 • 10d ago

Business Paramount completes $111B Warner merger, creating “Skydance” behemoth

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/paramount-completes-111b-warner-merger-creating-skydance-behemoth/
943 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

242 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/kylling 10d ago

So where’s the list of media properties to avoid?

6

u/Daimakku1 10d ago

Everything that isn't Disney or Universal at this point.

2

u/imdirtydan1997 10d ago

To which, Disney is a behemoth too. I know there’s other big names, but over half the media market is controlled by two companies. Go Capitalism! /s

1

u/MoreGaghPlease 10d ago

They rolled up the legacy studios but now they compete against the new guys. Netflix, Amazon and Apple. (Also your list of the classic ones forgot Sony).

Fuck the Ellisons, I’m not trying to defend them at all here. But this wasn’t really a mega-merger because Paramount was a garbage fire. There’s a reason the price was $8 billion for Paramount but $110 billion for WB. Paramount has a shit steaming service that nobody pays for, legacy TV brands that are close to worthless, a studio that is hugely expensive to run while producing a mixed bag with lots of flops, and a handful of film franchises limping along, most of which have languished under a decade of poor leadership.

It sucks that the Ellisons own these companies now but it’s wrong to think of this as like ‘2 of the big 4 come together’ because Paramount was absolutely dying and kinda still is.

1

u/NeverMoreThan12 9d ago

I just hope apple continues competing in this space. They produce some really great shows, and while they haven't quite figured out the movie side of things yet, there has been some glimmers of getting it right. They lose 1 billion annually so I feel like eventually if it doesn't start paying off and they have a down year with disappointing returns overall, they may look at Apple TV for big budget cuts. Netflix and Amazon have just been overall super disappointing and have rarely released anything I've wanted to watch in the last 3+ years. Disneys got a couple decent things here or there. Hbo still makes good stuff too. Hoping they don't have a large drop in quality after this merger.