Scott says Netflix-WBD deal raises major antitrust problems, Semafor reports

In a letter to the Trump administration, GOP Senatorial Committee Chair Senator Tim Scott said the Netflix (NFLX)-Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) deal raises “significant antitrust problems,” Semafor’s Rohan Goswami, Max Tani, and Liz Hoffman report. Scott argued that the $83B merger could harm consumers by entrenching Netflix as the dominant streaming platform with pricing power, while reducing options for Hollywood showrunners and threatening brick-and-mortar movie theaters. “The transaction warrants rigorous antitrust review under all applicable antitrust merger and monopolization laws and, to the extent appropriate, a lawsuit to block it,” Scott wrote in the letter, which was sent to the Justice Department and the FTC and reviewed by Semafor.