Netflix is reshaping Hollywood with an $82.7 billion bet on Warner Bros. Discovery, scooping up HBO, DC Comics, and Game of Thrones in what's become the most controversial megadeal in entertainment history. But the December announcement was just the opening act. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos now faces Senate testimony this week as lawmakers and industry groups demand the Justice Department block the merger, warning it could hand Netflix dangerous monopoly power over what Americans watch and how much they pay for it.
Netflix just dropped the biggest bombshell in Hollywood history, and the fallout is only getting started. The streaming giant's $82.7 billion play for Warner Bros. Discovery isn't just big - it's a complete reshuffling of the entertainment deck that has lawmakers, rivals, and the Writers Guild calling foul.
The deal would hand Netflix's 325 million subscribers instant access to HBO's prestige catalog, the entire DC Comics universe, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Warner Bros.' legendary film library. But getting there means surviving a regulatory gauntlet that's already forcing co-CEO Ted Sarandos into a Senate hearing room this week, according to Bloomberg.
The megadeal caught the industry off guard when it was announced in early December, but the real drama started months earlier. Warner Bros. Discovery had been drowning in debt while cable subscribers fled and streaming rivals circled. In October, WBD after receiving unsolicited interest. Years of financial pressure from billions in debt and had backed the media giant into a corner.
