![]() We're offering a 2-week trial of WrapPRO for $1. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time. Greetings!There's a growing sentiment that Netflix's acquisition of the Warner Bros. studio and streaming assets has become an unstoppable force. Sure, there's still the regulatory approval process, and even an activist shareholder, but it feels like Netflix is in a good place when it comes to this deal. Heck, even President Trump has said he's stepping away from trying to exert his influence (don't pay attention to the fact that he owns corporate debt in both Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery). That's not to say that there aren't groups forming to fight this acquisition. Once it became clear Netflix was the winning bidder for Warner Bros., labor groups like the Writers Guild of America and movie trade organization Cinema United moved swiftly to issue statements over the “unprecedented threat” it posed to Hollywood. But as our Jeremy Fuster writes, it's not just the big groups with lobbying power that are getting vocal. There are more than 120,000 small businesses in entertainment that could be affected by such a deal, and they needed to be heard too. "That independent ecosystem has specific needs in order to exist within the broader industry, but our needs are often underrepresented in policy conversations,” said Jax Deluca, interim executive director of the Future Film Coalition. The result has been a broad-based alliance of groups all with the common goal of getting their message in front of lawmakers, regulators state attorneys general — anyone who could potentially throw a wrench in the merger process. There's hope that the noise that they're making is being heard, with several senators last week bringing up the kind of issues they've been raising, including a focus not just on what this combination might do to consumer pricing, but its impact on jobs in the entertainment community. That's why Writers Guild of America West President Michele Mulroney told Fuster that she was heartened by some of the questions the lawmakers asked during the session, including Sen. Cory Booker submitting their material into the record. Even Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who made headlines for accusing Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos of advancing a “transgender agenda,” had minutes earlier asked a pertinent question about jobs and declining shoot days in Los Angeles and across the country. These groups are facing off against companies with extensive lobbying resources, but are gearing up for what could be a protracted fight with existentially high stakes. Roger Cheng
The Netflix-Warner opponents wanted a public-facing element to their efforts, which led to the Future Film Coalition partnering with 20 other organizations to launch the...
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