Michael Barbaro

subscribes to HBO and Netflix.

Everybody?

Yep.

Everybody.

Okay.

So in theory, you might be paying less for those two when they're housed under the same roof, right?

Suffice it to say, there will be less competition between the two of them when they're owned by the same place.

If they want the price to go up, it will go up.

If they want the price to go down.

It will go down.

Lauren, Netflix is making a pretty interesting argument about why this merger, which puts a lot of things in one box, which is suddenly Netflix box, is not monopolistic.

And I wonder if you and Nicole, feel free to chime in on this too, can briefly summarize Netflix's case for why this is not something that the Trump administration should worry about when it comes to antitrust.

Nicole, does that argument feel compelling?

OK, so we're about to take a break.

And when we come back, we're going to talk about whether the alternative deal, which is Paramount buying Warner Brothers, is any better, whether it comes to the creative community and its concerns about this deal and all the antitrust issues that it raises as well.

So we'll be right back.

Okay, welcome back to our Hollywood edition roundtable.

Nicole, Lauren, and Kyle, I want you all to conjure this second possibility that it's Paramount that wins Warner Brothers.

Somehow the Netflix deal blows up.

And what it would mean if Paramount prevails for all the constituencies that we have been talking about so far.