Booker Hearing Probes Warner Bros. Merger Impacts

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey held a spotlight hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday to examine the potential impacts of Paramount Global and Skydance Media's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal valued at around $11 billion that could reshape the entertainment industry. The event proceeded without Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison, who declined the invitation due to a family member's funeral, according to a letter from the company's senior vice president for U.S. public policy and government affairs, Ted Lehman.

Booker, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, emphasized the need for Ellison's testimony to address concerns about job losses, reduced content diversity and threats to journalistic independence. "We should be having a bipartisan hearing with Mr. Ellison. He should come to Congress," Booker told reporters after the session. "If he's so confident in his merger, he should come and defend it in a hearing like the Netflix CEO did." This marks the second time Ellison has skipped such an invitation; he also did not appear at a February subcommittee hearing on a rival Netflix bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.