Q&A: What does the Netflix-Paramount bidding war mean for your streaming future?

December 10, 2025
illustration of the Warner Brothers logo in the middle of a tug-o-war between two people's arms in business attire.

(Illustration by John DiJulio, University Communications)

Netflix and Paramount, entertainment companies known for promoting drama within the shows and movies on their platforms, are now caught up in their own theatrics.

Paramount Skydance on Monday issued a $108 billion, all-cash “hostile bid” for Warner Bros. Discovery, just days after Netflix announced a $82.7 billion deal to buy the company. 

What’s it all mean? And how could the result affect how you consume your favorite movies and shows? We asked the University of Virginia’s Anthony Palomba, an assistant professor of business administration at the Darden School of Business and an expert in the media and entertainment industry, to share his insights.

Anthony Palomba

Darden School of Business assistant professor Anthony Palomba is an expert in audience analysis, media innovation and firm competition, and entertainment science. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Q. Why is Warner Bros. Discovery so desirable right now?

A. Warner Bros. Discovery comes with world-class (intellectual property), including streaming service HBO Max; Detective Comics content such as “Batman,” “Joker” and Superman”; “Game of Thrones,” “Harry Potter” and “The Sopranos.” This is a franchise gold mine paired with global studios, post-production, marketing, distribution and a full streaming infrastructure. 

WBD also carries roughly $30 billion in debt from the 2022 merger, which has depressed its stock price and made the company look cheap relative to its assets for any buyer confident they can run it better. 

With YouTube and TikTok dominating watch time and mid-tier streamers losing ground, acquiring WBD lets a buyer leap up the power rankings overnight, at least in the eyes of Wall Street and the banks that finance major deals. For Netflix, it’s a potential path to becoming a true global super-platform with deeper, more defensible IP. For Paramount, it’s a matter of survival through scale.

Q. How might a Netflix deal affect where people watch their favorite movies and shows?

A. If the Netflix deal wins, HBO Max and Warner Bros. titles would become Netflix-centric, with HBO Max likely folding into Netflix. That’s concerning because Max is artisanal, more Guggenheim than mass-market. And while it earns less, its premieres shape culture. Absorbing it into Netflix risks brand dilution, especially since creatives prefer working with HBO Max. 

The streaming landscape would contract, with Netflix, Disney/Hulu and Amazon dominating as mid-tier services fade. 

Netflix would likely introduce HBO-style bundles and premium tiers, creating something that resembles a cable ecosystem. 

Q. What’s the impact on the consumer if Paramount wins?

A. If Paramount’s hostile bid succeeds, WBD and Paramount+ would merge into a super studio with deep IP libraries and, just as importantly, a larger combined subscriber base. 

Either way, we’re heading toward a world where fewer, larger platforms control more of our viewing behavior. At the same time, artists may increasingly bypass traditional studios altogether, choosing to build audiences directly on YouTube, TikTok and other creator-driven platforms. 

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Ironically, this wave of mergers and consolidation across the media landscape could push consumers toward these alternative spaces, where artists can experiment more freely, reach audiences directly, and, in many cases, produce more compelling content.

Q. What do you see as a major issue with these bids?

A. This grab bag to increase IP fundamentally eschews the importance of artists. This is a massive mistake. Artists are the ones who create IP. How one streaming service can better license/create new iterations of IP is based on relationships with artists. 

The involved CEOs are fighting over assets that are melting glaciers in the media ecosystem. There are new business models, new media islands, that are available for exploration, rather than pursuing what used to work.

Once the water melts, you can’t refreeze the past.

Q. How unusual is a bidding war of this size in entertainment?

A. This kind of bidding war is very unusual, though not entirely without precedent in Hollywood. The closest comparison is the 2018 battle between Disney and Comcast over 21st Century Fox, which ended at roughly $71 billion. But even that wasn’t a hostile takeover. 

What makes the current situation extraordinary is the combination of factors: a signed Netflix agreement valuing Warner Bros. Discovery at roughly $82-83 billion alongside a fully hostile, all-cash, $108 billion bid from Paramount Skydance. That offer includes foreign sovereign fund participation and has already triggered heightened political and regulatory scrutiny. 

Taken together, this makes the WBD battle one of the largest, most complex and most contentious competitive bids the entertainment industry has ever seen.

Q. How do you see this playing out?

A. Netflix must convincingly argue to the FTC that it is fundamentally a tech company, not a media conglomerate. That’s a difficult case to make, given that it now operates in gaming, advertising, live events and global video streaming, all of which increasingly resemble traditional television. 

If Netflix can sell that narrative, I think it wins the deal; if it can’t, Paramount likely prevails. That said, I also didn’t anticipate Middle Eastern sovereign investors or Jared Kushner entering the fray, and the sudden volatility of this process shows just how unpredictable it is. 

If pressed to give a concrete prediction, I believe Netflix ultimately gets this done.

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Andrew Ramspacher

University News Senior Associate University Communications

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