The UK’s competition regulator has launched a formal investigation into Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
In April the Competition and Markets Authority issued an ‘invitation to comment,’ allowing interested parties to submit their initial views on deal’s impact on competition within the UK.
The body has now announced that it’s proceeding to a ‘phase 1’ investigation into the deal and aims to decide whether to launch a deeper ‘phase 2’ investigation by August 7th.
If approved by regulators in the US and abroad, the transaction will bring together two of Hollywood’s four biggest movie studios and two of the global streaming services.
It’ll also create an overlapping portfolio of TV channels across all genres plus one of the world’s largest collections of TV production companies and studios.