With Netflix backing away from its proposal to buy Warner Bros Discovery, paving the way for Paramount Skydance to take over the legacy studio, the merged Hollywood giant may be set to dominate the Indian theatrical space and reshape distribution strategies. In the English-language streaming ecosystem in India, there will be less disruption but heightened competition.
“The merged entity would command considerable distribution clout in India, given their significantly enlarged slate, enabling it to command a larger share of the Hollywood box office pie,” said Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas.
Warner Bros owns franchises such as The Conjuring, Harry Potter and Godzilla, which, coupled with Paramount titles Mission: Impossible and Transformers, give the merged entity better bargaining power with exhibitors.
However, according to Raheel Patel, a partner at Gandhi Law Associates, if Paramount Global takes over Warner Bros. Discovery, there will be stronger studio consolidation in India, not market domination. The combined entity would control major Hollywood IP, giving it sharper bargaining power with exhibitors like PVR Inox.
“Theatres may face tougher revenue-share negotiations, but tentpole supply would remain stable because Paramount is still a studio-first player,” Patel said. “A Netflix takeover would have been more disruptive, likely accelerating direct-to-OTT releases and weakening theatrical windows faster.”
Earlier, the Multiplex Association of India had expressed concern over Netflix’s $82.7 billion acquisition bid for Warner Bros, which it said could disrupt the studio’s supply of Hollywood films to theatres, suggesting that they could be streamed directly online.
A combination between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery would primarily operate at the level of upstream content ownership and global distribution strategy, according to Tushar Kumar, a Supreme Court of India advocate.
Studio model
Paramount has been historically aligned with the conventional studio model and has institutional incentives to preserve theatrical exclusivity windows in order to maximize box-office recovery, followed by staggered monetization through satellite and streaming licensing.
“This approach is comparatively less disruptive to Indian exhibitors and existing OTT licensees,” Kumar said.
He pointed out that a hypothetical acquisition by Netflix would have raised apprehensions of accelerated direct-to-digital migration, compression of theatrical windows, and internalization of marquee Warner Bros and HBO content within a single dominant subscription platform, constricting licensing availability for Indian OTT intermediaries and weakening competitive parity in premium English-language content acquisition.
Some experts said this transaction does not raise significant competition concerns in India. Neither Paramount nor Warner Bros operates a consumer-facing OTT platform in the country, although their content is available on JioHotstar and Amazon via licensing deals.
Furthermore, according to Mihir Rale, partner (co-head–digital | TMT) at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, other studios hold a meaningful presence in the theatrical space–Disney (20th Century Studios, Pixar, Searchlight, Marvel, Lucasfilm), Universal (Comcast and NBCU), Amazon MGM, Sony and Netflix.
It would be interesting to see if licensed Warner content is pulled off platforms such as Netflix, though many of these agreements could take three to five years to end, said Uday Sodhi, senior partner at Kurate Digital Consulting.
“The transaction does not, in a strict doctrinal sense, create a monopoly in India. The SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) market remains structurally oligopolistic, with JioHotstar and Amazon Prime Video each at roughly 23-25%, Netflix at about 19%, and Apple TV+ at around 14-15%, leaving no single player in a position of dominance,” said Shravanth Shanker, managing partner at B. Shanker Advocates LLP.
Bargaining leverage
However, the concern is one of increased concentration. The merger aggregates a significant share of premium Hollywood IP under one entity, enhancing its bargaining leverage in licensing negotiations with Indian platforms.
“When coupled with the Reliance-Disney-Viacom18 combine, which already anchors the largest distribution network, this raises credible risks of exclusive dealing and foreclosure. Theatrically, while Hollywood contributes only 10-20% of India’s box office, greater consolidation among studios may still tighten supply conditions for multiplexes. The debt-laden nature of the deal further introduces the risk of curtailed India-focused investment. In sum, the structure does not eliminate competition, but it meaningfully sharpens existing oligopolistic pressures across content and distribution layers,” Shanker explained.