Could Hollywood Actually De-Monopolize?

Could Hollywood Actually De-Monopolize?

From The Town with Matthew Belloni by The Ringer

April 20, 2026 · 34 min

About this episode

Matt Belloni discusses Hollywood's antitrust cases and predictions about the Academy Awards with Lucas Shaw.

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the state of the various high-profile antitrust cases in Hollywood, particularly how skeptical the states are of the Tegna-Nexstar and Live Nation–Ticketmaster mergers. Is this a new twist in how big media mergers are going to be treated? If so, what does this mean for Paramount–Warner Bros. (00:00)? Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the Academy Awards and AI (28:21). Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Matt Pevic Theme Song: Devon Renaldo This episode is brought to you by AMC+. Start your free trial today at join.amcplus.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Matt Belloni

Guest: Lucas Shaw

Topics covered

  • antitrust cases
  • Hollywood mergers
  • media industry
  • Academy Awards
  • AI

Keywords

  • Hollywood
  • antitrust
  • mergers
  • Academy Awards
  • AI
  • Tegna
  • Nexstar
  • Live Nation
  • Ticketmaster

Sponsors

AMC+

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bloomberg, Tegna, Nexstar, Live Nation, Ticketmaster, Paramount, Warner Bros.

Products: AMC+

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