The sale of Warner Bros. is becoming more and more complicated and streaming reality is likely at stake

If you’ve ever been to an auction and heard the auctioneer’s husky voice, you might have a pretty good idea of ​​what it means to bid on Warner Bros.

Warner Bros., home of Superman and Batman, may seem a little esoteric to you, but its ownership will likely affect the quality and cost of streaming favorites including HBO Max and HGTV, TCM+, as well as access to many of its cable TV counterparts like Cartoon Network, TNT, Adult Swim and more.

Last week, Netflix made a whopping $82.7 billion bid for Warner Bros., excluding CNN and some other items. The offer was accepted and the only major hurdle was regulatory approval of what, even with the spin-off of some content, could constitute a streaming monopoly in the US.

While some argue that YouTube, if accepted as a streaming company, would be even bigger than Netflix and Warner Bros. Together, all important just came back with a hostile bid of $108 billion.

The ink is barely dry on Paramount’s transfer of ownership from the Redstone family to Skydance, backed by David Ellison, but Paramount and Ellison it was clearEven before Netflix agreed to the deal, they claimed it was unfair and strongly opposed it.

Warner Bros is now offering a cash offer that is in many ways bigger than what Netflix promised.

In the IP bowl

It’s a little surprising, but depending on who wins (if anyone wins), your viewing experience at home and in theaters could change.

If Netflix wins, there will be concerns, despite promises from even Warner Bros.’ The biggest theatrical releases (think DC Studios’ upcoming Supergirl movie) may be nearing completion in theaters and streaming directly on HBO Max (or whatever Netflix is ​​called), or even Netflix itself.

Some consumers may be happy about this because they hate going to the movies anyway, but filmmakers still like to provide a cinematic experience and dream of blockbuster weekends, even if they are now rare.

Netflix’s plan to exit CNN could prove problematic for the news network unless it finds a major parent company.

But let’s take a quick look at the Paramount deal.

This also potentially packs even more intellectual property (Netflix itself has very little and most, even Stranger Things, are short-lived rather than ten years).

Paramount, for example, has it all journey to the stars Franchising. Can we imagine crosses between Bugs Bunny and Captain Kirk?

And will SpongeBob be an official Warner Bros. character? ?

Intellectual property issues aside, what would a merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. imply? for our transfer costs?

And us?

So far, we haven’t seen the combined streaming platforms drop prices. The bigger the company, the more content it has to produce, which means higher costs and certainly higher prices that we will have to pay or cancel the service.

The X-factor, however, may be the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump expressed his admiration for Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos this weekend, but also expressed concern about a monopoly.

The Paramount deal may seem more attractive to Trump for several reasons.

First of all, it’s close to Ellisons. David’s father, Larry Ellison, owns Oracle, the company that would acquire the TikTok algorithm (and part of TikTok). Trump publicly supported the sale of Paramount to David Ellison’s company. And since Paramount plans to sell Warner Bros. to buy, it could kill or consume CNN, a network Trump hates.

But wait.

As of this morning, Trump has changed his mind about Paramount 60 minutesone of the premier investigative journalism programs on the CBS News network, conducted an interview with outgoing US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, which did not present Trump in the best light.

Of course, Trump blasted Paramount in a “Truth” post on social media.“THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD PROPERTY.”

As a result, a harmonious merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. less likely.

At the same time, Paramount made some attempts to get Warner Bros. to get head, even start a website Describe in detail all the ways your offer is better.

So far, Warner Bros. Paramount’s rival offer has yet to be officially accepted, but whatever happens, nothing will be certain until regulators agree, Trump is satisfied and everyone signs on the dotted line.

For us streaming-only consumers, the situation is currently unchanged, but whatever the outcome, it’s unlikely to be of any benefit to any of us.