UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said on 30 June 2026 that she is 'minded to intervene' in Paramount Skydance Corp.'s (PSKY) proposed $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery Inc. (WBD), citing concerns about media plurality. In a written ministerial statement, Nandy said her department had written to the current and proposed owners of Warner Bros Discovery to inform them of her position, with the parties given until 6 July to make final representations before a formal decision on intervention is taken.
Nandy's stated concerns centre on ensuring a sufficient plurality of views in news media and a sufficient plurality of persons with control of media enterprises or on-demand programme services. Her assessment focused on the impact on British audiences, including services such as Channel 5, TNT Sports, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and CNN International, as well as streaming platforms Paramount+ and HBO Max. Nandy also said she was considering whether to expand public interest rules to better reflect the growing role of on-demand viewing.
Should Nandy issue a formal intervention notice, the next stage would require Ofcom to report on public interest considerations and the Competition and Markets Authority to report on whether a relevant merger situation has been created and any impact on competition. The CMA had already opened a merger inquiry into the deal earlier in June 2026, and that ongoing investigation is expected to feed into Nandy's work. Paramount Skydance is also awaiting EU approval for the deal, having already secured approval from the US Department of Justice, while the European Commission is expected to clear the transaction without a deeper investigation.
A Paramount Skydance spokesperson said the company is 'confident the proposed transaction does not pose any media plurality issues in the UK' and remains confident in its stated transaction timeline [Source: The Hollywood Reporter]. Paramount has said it believes it can close the deal by early autumn and has agreed to pay a ticking fee to WBD shareholders if the deal is not closed [Source: The Hollywood Reporter].
The deal has already been cleared by regulators in the US, China, Australia, Germany, France and Saudi Arabia. Paramount Skydance is run by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who put up tens of billions of dollars to satisfy funding guarantees for the WBD bid. A combined Paramount-WBD would control Channel 5, one of just four primary UK public service broadcasters. Separately, more than 5,500 actors, directors, producers and screenwriters have signed an open letter opposing the merger, and a group of US states led by California has suggested it may file suit to block the transaction, though no such suit has been filed.
Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters, The Guardian, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Sky News, Variety, NBC News, CNN