• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 3 hours ago

The TV Blog is no fan of Paramount CEO David Ellison or the direction he has taken CBS News.

Based on what is happening at CBS News, concerns that the new company formed from the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery would seek to Trump-proof CNN are legitimate.

But if the 12 states (10 blue and two purple) that have banded together to oppose the merger with an antitrust lawsuit were concerned about the independence of news outlets owned by the merged company, then the lawsuit would presumably have laid all that out.

Instead, the suit is a straight antitrust suit that raises issues of market competition, consumer choice and in this case, the power that might accrue to the new company from the joining of the two huge movie and TV content studios of Paramount and Warner Bros.

These arguments hold little or no water. Listen to what California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is positioned as frontman for the multistate lawsuit, is quoted as saying about the merger. 

He said it will “lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

I particularly love how he described the way viewers consume video and movie content. He thinks they sit together on sofas and flock to movie theaters.

Some people may sit together on sofas to watch TV, but I guess the California AG has not heard that much of TV-content consumption today is done on personal devices with headphones or earbuds. In other words, in parties of one who may or may not be sitting on a sofa.

As for movies, it’s great when a summer blockbuster or two comes along to fill movie theaters for a short time, such as this summer’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey.”

But just the other day, one of the biggest multiplexes in Manhattan announced it is closing at the end of the year. And they’ve been running “The Odyssey” on IMAX all summer.

OK -- that’s not a scientific way of assessing the state of movie theaters today, but there it is. 

As for Bonta’s claim that the consolidation of two big studios will “harm” movie theaters, he is likely referring to the power the merged company would then possess, in theory, to demand more money for their releases from already beleaguered movie-theater chains.

That may be a real concern, but the movie theater business has suffered for years -- not because of studio leverage, but because attention has shifted to home-viewing on small devices and large-screen TVs. 

If the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery does not happen, it is not likely that we will suddenly see a movie-theater renaissance. 

What else does AG Bonta have to say? Oh, he said the merger will lead to higher prices. The TV Blog already acknowledged that the merged studios might give the new company leverage in negotiations with movie theaters. 

Perhaps he was also referring to leverage in the setting of license fees for TV and movie content for streamers, TV station groups and basic cable networks too, and the setting of rates and prices when it comes to basic-cable carriage.

The new company would be the biggest owner of basic cable networks in the United States, by far -- approximately 50 of them.

This will certainly give the new company leverage in its negotiations with local cable systems and distributors. They cannot afford to lose a couple dozen cable channels.

But the new Paramount-WBD company cannot afford to lose its presence on local cable either. This feels like a stalemate. Besides, basic cable is in its death throes anyway, and has been for years.

All the big TV and movie companies have leverage in one way or another. Their leverage lives mainly in the quality of what they are offering. 

And yet, Attorney General Bonta believes a merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will result in lower-quality content.

This is the part that reveals how unconnected he is to the world of movie and TV entertainment, which happens to be the life blood of California, or once was.

In case he hasn’t heard, lower-quality content has been a part of the TV universe since the first images flickered on a cathode-ray tube. And it continues to this day. 

It would be some accomplishment indeed if the merged company formed by Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery somehow lowered the quality of TV.

Lowering the quality of their wares would not be in their interest. I am confident that the new company will try its hardest to make TV shows that will be enjoyed by ordinary people and sponsors alike. Otherwise, they would have no business.

As for the competition, it is true that Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are two of what the world calls the Big Five in movie and television production.

The others are Disney, Universal and Sony. These companies are not exactly small. The idea that the merger of Paramount and WBD would create a monopoly is absurd.

So are the statements of AG Bonta such as the one quoted above. According to him, the merger will adversely affect every sofa-sitting American, and it is his job to save their asses.