The Teamsters told the DOJ that the proposed Paramount-WBD merger poses a  direct threat to film and television workers nationwide,  including nearly 15,000 Motion Picture Teamsters.



In the letter, Delrahim waved off the Teamster's concerns as not grounded in facts.  Invigorated competition to produce more content across the entertainment industry will translate to more opportunities for organized labor beyond Paramount's projects. In short, this deal is a win for the Teamsters and other labor unions,  the Paramount lawyer wrote.

Delrahim continued,  Paramount's content strategy aligns directly with the Teamsters' interests. More films and series in production means more call sheets, more location days, more transportation, casting, and catering work. The combined company will have no incentive to shrink the production engine that drives its competitiveness. Increasing production volume is the central pillar of how Paramount intends to compete. 

In the June 5 letter, Delrahim reiterated points he's previously made about why Disney's $71 billion 21st Century Fox deal is not indicative of what would happen if Paramount swallows Warner Bros. Among those: that Disney had reduced its theatrical output before it acquired Fox; that the COVID pandemic dramatically depressed film releases; and that  Disney has unequivocally increased its spending on producing content overall since acquiring Fox.  Delrahim reiterated CEO David Ellison's commitment that the merged company will release at least 30 films per year. And his letter also repeated the company's claims that Paramount+ and HBO Max on their own do not have the scale to compete against bigger subscription streaming players Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu, and Amazon's Prime Video.

Last week Delrahim said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that  There's a lot of fear-mongering, particularly from people in Washington, D.C. They are running a political campaign. Some of these people are trying to inflict harm on this transaction really because of their own antisemitic views.  Delrahim has not identified which opponents of the Paramount-WBD merger allegedly hold  antisemitic views. 

Separately, on Tuesday, the U.K.'s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, said it initiated an investigation into the proposed Paramount-WBD deal. In the U.S., as Paramount awaits an official greenlight from the DOJ, state attorneys general including California's Rob Bonta are potentially moving forward with litigation to seeking to block Paramount-WBD on antitrust grounds.

Paramount disclosed in an FCC filing that the merged Paramount-WBD would be 49.5% owned by foreign investors, with about 38.5% of the equity in the new company owned by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Variety confirmed that the three Middle Eastern countries had pledged a total of $24 billion toward Paramount's Warner Bros. bid.

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