Netflix Walks, Paramount Wins, and the Ellisons Take Hollywood

Netflix Walks, Paramount Wins, and the Ellisons Take Hollywood

From Channels with Peter Kafka by Vox Media Podcast Network

February 27, 2026 · 34 min

About this episode

In this episode, Alex Sherman discusses Netflix's unexpected decision to walk away from a deal with Paramount and the implications of recent media mergers.

Netflix shocked the world last year by winning a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. This week it shocked us by walking away.In this emergency bonus episode, CNBC’s Alex Sherman walks us through the whiplash: Why Netflix chose not to counter Paramount, what the market blowback signaled, and how much of this was about price versus the very real prospect of a long, ugly regulatory and political slog.Then we spin it forward: what a Paramount/WBD mash-up means in practice (translation: overlap, “synergies,” and a lot of job anxiety)? What happens to crown-jewel assets like HBO and CNN? And why this isn’t just another media merger, but a power shift. We don’t really know what David and Larry Ellison have planned for their newly acquired media empire — but we do know that they are now very big players. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Peter Kafka

Guest: Alex Sherman

Topics covered

  • media mergers
  • Netflix
  • Paramount
  • Warner Bros. Discovery
  • regulatory issues
  • Hollywood
  • Ellison family

Keywords

  • Netflix
  • Paramount
  • Warner Bros. Discovery
  • media merger
  • Ellison
  • HBO
  • CNN
  • regulatory
  • political

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, HBO, CNN

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