A key worry that UNIC has shared with EU competition officials is that Paramount will slash Warner Bros. original content — such as locally produced biopics — to focus on less risky and more profitable franchises such as Mission: Impossible.
Civil society groups also challenged the deal in a letter, saying it would give a U.S. owner too much control over European TV channels. “That the deal now appears likely to win conditional Phase I approval is very disappointing,” Mark Dempsey, of media freedom advocacy group Article 19, one of the letter’s signatories, told POLITICO on Wednesday.
Dempsey described the proposed remedy as “insufficient” and criticized the lack of an assessment of media plurality by the European Board of Media Services, a newly created body tasked with monitoring media concentration across the bloc.
A spokesperson for the Media Board told POLITICO it was still assessing whether to draft an opinion on the deal.
Media freedom
Dempsey said the lack of scrutiny “undermines the European Media Freedom Act, which was enacted amongst other things to act as a bulwark against media concentration and its impact on media pluralism, a fundamental component of a well-functioning democracy.”
The Commission only gives marginal consideration to media pluralism and cultural diversity under its merger control remit, which focuses on whether any deal would limit consumer choice or push up prices.