Paramount and Netflix are fighting to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the company behind HBO and some of the most valuable shows in television. Paramount has already made a hostile bid worth more than 100 billion dollars, while Netflix has stepped in with its own offer. Whoever wins would gain control of hit titles like Game of Thrones and Succession, along with a major movie studio that has already been reorganized several times in the past two decades. The sale could reshape Hollywood and give the buyer a much larger share of the streaming and box office markets.
Paramount hopes the deal will help it compete more closely with Disney. Netflix wants to protect its lead in streaming by adding a library of well known stories that would take years and billions of dollars to recreate. Analysts say either deal could raise questions from regulators because both companies already spend huge amounts on new content each year. Warner Bros Discovery also carries heavy debt, which means any buyer must take on a large financial burden.
While the two companies fight for ownership of Warner Bros Discovery, the biggest force in the market is not involved at all. YouTube continues to hold the largest share of TV viewing in the United States and reaches billions of users around the world. Seeing the domination of YouTube over the streaming market, the whole fight of Netflix and Paramount over Warner Bros Discovery starts to look silly.
In October it had more viewers than any other streaming platform, and its growth shows no sign of slowing. The struggle for Warner Bros Discovery may change Hollywood, yet nothing in this bidding war comes close to the scale of YouTube.