Paramount responds to letter from Hollywood figures

[ap215]

Liars and frauds everyone knows all this merger transaction soft talk is all bullshit does the AOL-Time Warner Merger ring a bell

Paramount responds to letter from Hollywood figures

After more than 1,000 Hollywood content creators and other figures signed on to a letter opposing the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the company has responded by making the case that the transaction will ensure that there will be “more avenues for their work, not fewer.”

The company statement said, “This transaction uniquely brings together complementary strengths to create a company that can greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers, and bring stories to audiences at a truly global scale-while strengthening competition by ensuring multiple scaled players are investing in creative talent.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/p ... ocialshare

[ZoWie]

Anyone who has worked in this town knows that's a crock. Competition from other media is growing at the same time inflation is reducing the audience's budget for entertainment. Production is at an all time low. No amount of bullshit from the oligarchy will change that.

[ZoWie]

- bump -

The Paramount/Warner merger, which would create a truly scary media titan just barely short of a monopoly, costing thousands of jobs in the process, has caused a massive backlash. Many organizations you've heard of have joined in the legal battle against it.

Latest news circulating This Town is that SAG-AFTRA has joined WGA in legal challenges to this merger. They are far from the only organizations that are lawyering up, but they are two of the biggest and most powerful. In addition, there's a new suit filed every couple of weeks by someone else who also has a large legal budget.

[ap215]

Thankfully it's blocked until 2027 i would love to see this entire merger unraveled and break up but it's a pipe dream because i worry the judges here will approve it so hopefully the dems in congress will take action if and when they retake the gavel in 2027.

[ZoWie]

Nooz has gone ballistic with someone's estimate that the merger would put 10,000 jobs on the cutting room floor in LA alone. The oligarchy activated its troops in the media, and now we are being told not to worry, only 5000 people here will lose their jobs.

How many of them voted with the oligarchy last election?

[ap215]

Gavin's staff stood their ground it's like i said Trump did this to serve for his donors installing The Ellisons at Paramount as pawns for his own benefit it's his fault also Rob is right about David's "threat" of moving Paramount out of CA it's blackmail and the oligarchs hate paying taxes

Rob Bonta Cancels Monday Settlement Meeting With Paramount

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has canceled his office’s Monday settlement meeting with Paramount, accusing the studio of leaking details of their impending discussions and acting in bad faith.

“My office was scheduled to meet with Paramount on Monday, Aug. 24. I have pulled down this meeting. As I’ve said before, generally for all cases, I prefer to resolve disputes in the boardroom, not the courtroom,” Bonta said in a statement to TheWrap. “As I’ve also said, if the opposing party in litigation wants to meet in good faith to make a sincere effort to resolve the case, we’ll meet.”

https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/d ... r-lawsuit/

[ZoWie]

I would hazard to guess that most of these mega-mergers in the media are how a new oligarchy consolidates its power. It's certainly having that effect. It goes straight to the idea that oligarchies succeed by controlling the means of information.

[ZoWie]

Last week we were all assured that Paramount was in LA to stay. This week it appears not to be assured any more. I wouldn't bet my future on the outcome of all this, given that the USA is now essentially the upper-class globalist version of the future.

The Paramount lot is currently one of the busier ones. That's not saying much, since most of the LA action is in TV shows shot on sound stages with 3-camera video setups. No more building the fall of Rome or the 1890s exteriors on the back lots. With one or two exceptions, no more back lots. No more movie ranches. Mostly TV shows shooting on LA streets making the traffic even worse. Even so, the physical presence of even an eviscerated Paramount is keeping a whole neighborhood of support businesses, agents, rental houses, film labs, places to do lunch, and such in business. (It's also next to a celebrity graveyard, but that's another movie. At least the grave digger and grass cutter jobs appear safe.)

I'm not the one to speculate on the future of the LA movie business. It still employs thousands of people, but the work is becoming far more scarce and in general everyone sees kind of a grim future. These mergers, when combined with the Internet's encouragement of outsourcing, the maturing of CGI as a means of creating picture, etc etc change the bad stuff from a long-time possibility to a more imminent probability. Even so, it's in the hands of the economic gods and the lawyers right now.

[ap215]

This is all on Trump

Paramount threatening to leave California over merger lawsuit, reports say

California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Bloomberg Television on Friday that he planned to pursue a lawsuit over Paramount’s merger with Warner Brothers if October settlement talks fail. The ongoing legal dispute has sparked unconfirmed reports suggesting Paramount may soon relocate to another state.

What does the lawsuit allege? Bonta and a coalition of a dozen attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against Paramount in July, alleging that the potential $110 billion merger with Warner Brothers would eliminate competition between the two companies. They said it would cause damage to movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and audiences nationwide. They also claimed it would violate the Clayton Act, creating a monopoly and leading to higher prices as well as low-quality content for consumers.

https://wng.org/sift/paramount-threaten ... 1789769186

[ZoWie]

Now they worry about mergers and acquisitions turning the entertainment industry into a 3-company monopoly that outsources as much as they can to the lowest bidders in China and India, and lets Washington and the corporate marketing industry control the content. Now is about 30 years too late. That boat sailed a long time ago. I was there on the dock waving goodbye. I have pictures. You have seen some of them in your local moviola.

TV didn't kill the movies, since it's owned by the same six companies. It's easy to blame the invention of the Internet for killing the movies as a truly definitive entertainment medium, but that's a bit too easy. That's the B+ answer. The A- answer is a double whammy of Internet and Artificial Everything but it also cites how we killed the movies when we allowed politicians and lawyers to weaken antitrust legislation, after which we allowed everything to be handed over to cabals controlled by the same tiny group of billionaires. The A+ answer is close to the A- answer, but also cites failure to control inflation in general because that might have hurt major donors to political campaigns.

[ZoWie]

It's over.

BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxj0604d33qzo

Paramount takes over Warner Bros in $110bn Hollywood merger

The newly merged entertainment behemoth will be re-branded under the name Skydance Corporation, the company orginally founded by David Ellison before he took over both Paramount and Warner Bros Discover.

Ellison, chairman and chief executive of Skydance, said the completion of the deal was "historic" for the film industry

It's historic, all right, but not for the reasons he mentions. More like decline and fall.