Senior White House officials have privately raised red flags over Netflix's potential bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), warning that the streamer's expanding power could destabilize Hollywood and trigger a sweeping antitrust investigation, the New York Post reported.
The meeting, held roughly 10 days ago and not previously disclosed, signals the strongest indication yet that the administration is bracing for a regulatory battle should Netflix attempt to absorb the storied Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming platform, the Post reported.
According to a government official who attended the gathering, participants broadly agreed that Netflix already wields "unique antitrust concerns" and that winning the WBD bidding war would "touch off an investigation along the lines of those of Google and Amazon."
With nearly 300 million global subscribers, Netflix is the world's largest streaming platform — a scale critics say could stifle competition if paired with HBO Max and Warner Bros.' massive content library.
WBD, which controls everything from HBO and CNN to the No. 1-ranked Warner Bros. studio, is currently soliciting second-round offers.
Rivals including Paramount Skydance and Comcast are preparing revised bids, though Comcast faces steep odds due to President Donald Trump's long-public disdain for MSNBC — recently rebranded MS NOW — and the network's staunchly anti-MAGA editorial stance.
Netflix, meanwhile, faces a different type of obstacle: its own size.
Officials at the White House meeting pointed to the likelihood of both U.S. and European pushback, citing growing global scrutiny of Big Tech's dominance.
European regulators have already cracked down on Meta, Apple, and Amazon in recent years, and analysts expect Brussels to resist further consolidation in digital entertainment.
Netflix executives, including CEO Ted Sarandos, have been aggressively lobbying Washington, arguing that traditional antitrust standards shouldn't apply because online video exists in a broad "category ambiguity."
Under that theory, competition comes not only from Hollywood studios but also from platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and social-media creators. But senior White House officials advising Trump reportedly expressed increasing skepticism, noting the streamer's extraordinary leverage over talent, content pricing, and market access.
This aligns with longstanding conservative concerns about media consolidation and Big Tech power — concerns Trump championed during his first term and continues to emphasize.
His administration previously took aim at Amazon's preferential treatment in cloud computing, Google's search dominance, and Apple's App Store policies. A blockbuster Netflix-WBD merger could become the next major test case.
If Netflix prevails in the bidding war, the Department of Justice's antitrust division, now headed by Trump appointee Gail Slater, could launch a yearslong investigation, potentially expanding beyond the WBD transaction to examine Netflix's entire business model.
A similar fate befell Google and Amazon, whose inquiries ballooned from narrow probes into sprawling multi-front investigations.
Adding pressure, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., recently sent a letter to Slater and Attorney General Pam Bondi warning that Netflix "wields unequaled market power" and that adding HBO Max and Warner Bros.' unmatched catalog would only heighten that dominance.
Still, some industry insiders believe Sarandos sees the bid as a necessary gamble.
Should Paramount Skydance secure WBD, the combined content arsenal could leave Netflix "behind the eight-ball," one media executive told the Post, limiting its ability to license top-tier films and franchises.
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