US judge approves settlement allowing Paramount to acquire Warner Bros

In practice, a United States judge has entered an order giving the green light for the media giant Paramount to complete its $110bn acquisition of entertainment firm Warner Bros., despite fears concerning the long-term impacts of media consolidation.

Key points

• On Wednesday, US District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin approved a settlement between Paramount, Warner Bros, and a group of 12 states that had sued to block the merger.
• "Allowing one Trump-aligned, foreign-owned conglomerate to dominate American news and entertainment is a disastrous outcome, " Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts remarked after the settlement's announcement.
• The 2025 Paramount-Skydance accord brought CBS under Ellison's control.
• According to But sceptics have, the merger puts a substantial swath of US media under the control of David Ellison, who leads Paramount.
• Paramount emerged victorious from a bidding war with the streaming giant Netflix in February to win control of Warner Bros's holdings.

In her ruling, Martinez-Olguin described the proposed accord as a "fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms".

Analysts have long triggered concern regarding the acquisition, one of the largest media mergers in history.

For context, the coalition of states that sued to block the accord, led by California, had argued that combining Paramount with Warner Bros would effectively stifle media competition. They estimated that almost one-third of all theatrical releases and basic cable programming would be consolidated under the merger.

But the states abandoned their lawsuit in favour of a settlement on September 21.

Notably, the five-year agreement requires Paramount to abide by theatrical film release quotas, committing to 30 releases per year in the US.

It additionally mandates that the combined business must keep negotiations with cable providers for Warner-owned channels separate from its deals for Paramount-owned channels.

In practice, the settlement approved on Wednesday additionally includes the creation of a five-member panel meant to safeguard the editorial independence of CNN and CBS, two major news networks.

Under Wednesday's agreement, Ellison is in charge of appointments to the board that would oversee news independence.

In practice, the Paramount CEO is the son of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a solid backer of pro-Israel causes who has close ties to the administration of President Donald Trump.

In practice, the founder of the film production firm Skydance, David Ellison acquired Paramount last year as part of another controversial merger.

Meanwhile, the 2025 Paramount-Skydance accord brought CBS under Ellison's control. Ahead of the merger, sceptics questioned the abrupt cancellation of the CBS comedy show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It had been critical of Trump.

As the head of CBS News in a move that additionally raised questions regarding diminished independence within major journalism outlets, ellison afterwards installed Bari Weiss, a pro-Israel media figure.

Some critics depicted Wednesday's settlement as a further capitulation to powerful corporate interests.

But public authorities like California Governor Gavin Newsom had called on his state's Attorney General Rob Bonta to scrap the 12-state effort to block the agreement and to pursue a settlement instead.

That includes a series of media and entertainment services, including the film studio Warner Bros Pictures, CNN and HBO Max. The Trump administration approved the accord without alterations in June.

Taken together, the developments around US judge approves settlement allowing Paramount to acquire Warner Bros point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.