The Town with Matthew Belloni The Brewing Backlash to Hollywood Consolidation
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Nov 19, 2025 
Jonathan Kanter, the former Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, shares his insights on the impending Warner Bros. Discovery sale. He discusses the intricacies of antitrust laws and the challenges posed by big tech companies. Kanter emphasizes that mere consolidation may not be enough to compete with giants like Google. He raises concerns about government influence on media mergers and highlights the risks of monopsony harms for creators. The conversation dives into the potential ramifications for the media landscape by 2025.
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Two Faces Of Merger Review
- Antitrust review examines both horizontal consolidation and distribution/platform conflicts of interest.
- Regulators will probe whether ownership allows a buyer to raise rivals' costs or exclude competitors from distribution.
Platform Power Reshapes Markets
- Traditional market definitions (studios vs. streaming) matter but modern platform power changes the analysis.
- Google/YouTube's ad and distribution scale forces rivals to frame mergers as necessary to compete.
Consolidation Feeds More Consolidation
- Jonathan Kanter recounts the repeated cycle of firms merging for scale and then seeking more deals later.
- He uses past mergers like AOL Time Warner to illustrate consolidation's recurring failures.
