Ted Sarandos

Obviously, the president is very keenly interested in entertainment, and he's very interested in American industry and American jobs.

So those are the conversations that we've had.

I don't know why the Ellisons intimate that they have some direct line to the Department of Justice for a faster path of clearance.

But I doubt that they do.

This is a process that is being run by the Department of Justice.

The president has been very clear on that.

We've been very clear on that.

The Department of Justice published in 2023 the guidelines for mergers that they are following right now.

So that's what's happening here.

This is a business deal, not a political deal.

Look, it's a very important thing to look at, and I think why the DOJ is having those conversations, those are all laid out in the 2023 merger guidelines.

To better understand the landscape, they're going to talk to competitors and suppliers and to better understand the landscape, including how it impacts adjacent businesses like the theatrical business.

Now, our pitch is very simple because it's the truth, which is we're going to keep Warner Brothers running pretty much like they are today, releasing their movies in theaters for the traditional 45-day windows.

And in fact, it's even quite better for theaters because now that we're going to be in that business and own a theatrical distribution entity,

We're going to take some of the Netflix films and put them through that as well.

So it's very likely that you'll have even more outcome of high quality films for the theaters if this deal goes through.

Now remember Paramount has got this kind of fantasy proposal of somehow they're going to go from the half a dozen or so movies they distributed last year to 30 movies a year, which is about 10 movies more than the healthy studios are making now.

I don't think that's likely, but what I know is very likely

is that we're going to continue to operate that business largely as it is today.

starting in the theaters, running through traditional windows, hitting HBO Max through the pay TV output deal, the output deals around the world.