Netflix under White House scrutiny? Officials flag antitrust concerns over bid for Warner Bros Discovery, says report

Netflix's move to acquire the Warner Bros studio and the HBO Max streaming service has attracted scrutiny from the Trump administration, with senior White House officials raising concerns, according to a report by The New York Post.

The officials in a recent meeting discussed whether such an acquisition would give Netflix “too much power over Hollywood”, the news outlet reported, citing people in the know.

The high-level meeting took place around 10 days ago, with several White House officials in attendance. The officials also suggested that a broader investigation is necessary to assess Netflix’s market power, a government official present in the meeting told The Post.

“Basically, everyone agreed that Netflix presents unique antitrust concerns and if it won the bidding war, it would be one long slog and touch off an investigation along the lines of those of Google and Amazon,” the official said.

“Netflix already has market dominance, but if you add a major streaming service that would stifle competition at some point,” the government official added.

Netflix, which has already made its bid for Warner Bros Discovery, is expected to make a sweetened offer in line with the studios' demand to submit new and better offers.

Meanwhile, Paramount Skydance, run by Hollywood producer David Ellison and his father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, are also expected to raise their offer.

The third bidder, cable giant Comcast, is likely to make a better bid, although chances of it getting past Trump's regulatory gauntlet are low, given the US president's recent criticism of the anti-MAGA cable channel MSNBC, recently renamed MS NOW.

Why is Netflix under White House scanner?

Netflix faces a different but equally difficult set of hurdles in its quest to get regulatory approvals to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, according to the report by The New York Post, citing Trump officials' opinions during the meeting.

Created 28 years ago by Reed Hastings and led by CEO Ted Sarandos, Netflix is at present the world’s largest streaming service, with 300 million subscribers.

According to White House officials, this size of Netflix could hamper competition in streaming, where Americans consume most of their entertainment amid shrinking interest towards cable TV services.

Theoretically, antitrust laws do not necessarily apply to streaming services due to the prevalence of content which is available on social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. However, this pitch is now facing significant criticism from senior White House officials who advise Donald Trump on media policy, according to a government official quoted by The New York Post.

Trump administration officials have also raised concerns about the enormous power Netflix is already wielding in the Hollywood industry, not just with subscribers but also with producers, actors, directors and others. As per the official quoted by the newspaper, anti-competitive business models of media and tech concentration are one of the recurring themes of the Trump administration.

What Netflix may face

If Netflix wins the Warner Bros Discovery bid, the scale of the deal and its scope may trigger a lengthy probe by the DOJ’s antitrust division run by Trump appointee Gale Slater. This investigation could even expand beyond the acquisition to the entire operations of Netflix, “something that the company has avoided until now,” the government official who attended said.

However, Ted Sarandos may feel there is no choice but to battle it out and make a run at the Warner Bros Discovery deal.

“If Paramount owns all its content plus Warner and HBO, they will have control of a massive and quality library, and put Netflix behind the eight-ball in terms of negotiating for WBD content on its streaming service,” a media industry insider was quoted as saying by the report.