Booker to Spotlight Paramount-WBD Merger in Senate Hearing

Sen. Cory Booker will hold a “spotlight hearing” in the Senate to scrutinize Paramount’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery and has invited Paramount CEO David Ellison to testify, though he cannot attend due to a family funeral. The event, not an official Judiciary Committee hearing, is meant to focus attention on the deal’s competitive effects; witnesses include David Borenstein, Michael Isaac, Katie Phang, and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, with industry figures like Edward Norton, Pedro Pascal and others backing an open letter opposing the merger organized in part by Jane Fonda’s First Amendment Committee and the Democracy Defenders Fund. Paramount has argued the merger is procompetitive and would increase content to compete with Netflix, a point highlighted after The New York Times reported Booker’s outreach.