James Cameron penned a scathing letter to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on antitrust, aggressive coverage and shopper rights, over the potential Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
Within the letter, obtained by CNBCthe “Avatar” and “Titanic” director warned Lee in regards to the detrimental results the merger might have on the leisure business. Cameron likened the merger’s impact on the theater-going expertise to a “sinking ship” and cautioned that the acquisition might result in huge job losses.
“I imagine strongly that the proposed sale of Warner Brothers Discovery to Netflix will likely be disastrous for the theatrical movement image enterprise that I’ve devoted my life’s work to,” Cameron wrote. “After all, my movies all play within the downstream video markets as properly, however my old flame is the cinema.”
The pending acquisition – set as an $83 billion merger deal – has raised issues amongst lawmakers on each side of the political aisle about Netflix’s dominance within the streaming market, in addition to the potential affect to competitors, shopper costs, jobs in Hollywood and the theatrical enterprise.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended the deal to the Senate Judiciary’s subcommittee on antitrustcompetitors coverage and shopper rights that Lee chairs firstly of February. He argued that the deal would “strengthen the American leisure business, protect alternative and worth for customers and create alternatives for creators.” He touted greater than 155,000 American jobs created by Netflix productions and $225 billion contributed to the U.S. financial system up to now.
“We are going to give customers extra content material for much less. So this isn’t a typical media merger the place you find yourself with what’s referred to as the Noah’s Ark drawback — two of all the things,” Sarandos mentioned on the time. “We’re shopping for an organization that has belongings that we don’t and we’ll preserve investing in Warner Brothers. We are going to protect one of many 5 main studios in Hollywood. We’ll assist theaters by releasing these motion pictures with conventional 45-day home windows and we’ll continue to grow the American leisure business.”
