‘Morning Joe’ Predicts 18-Month ‘Massive Soap Opera’ Fight Over Netflix-Warner Bros. Deal | Video

“Morning Joe” predicted Friday a protracted regulatory battle to come with potential intervention from President Trump over Netflix’s agreement to buy Warner Bros., HBO and HBO Max for $82.7 billion.

The deal was announced early Friday, following weeks of negotiations, which also involved the David Ellison-owned Paramount. Appearing on Friday’s edition of “Morning Joe,” CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin called the deal a “blockbuster shocker” and noted that the internal assumption just 48 hours ago was that the Ellisons were likely to emerge from the negotiation cycle as the successful bidders.

“This deal is different,” Sorkin said. “The question right now is whether the Ellison family and others are going to try to prevent this deal from happening.”

“The next 18 months are going to be a massive soap opera regulatory fight,” Sorkin predicted, noting the Ellison family’s connections to Trump. His prediction prompted “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski to ask why Netflix would take on such a challenge in the first place. “That’s the fundamental question,” Sorkin replied. The “Squawk Box” host went on to outline Netflix’s likely argument for why its acquisition of Warner Bros. should receive regulatory approval.

“The legal question … is ultimately how you define the market for streaming services,” Sorkin explained. “If you define it in a sort of narrow way around paid-subscription streaming services, you would say they will own a huge portion of that business. If you say, ‘Actually this is in the eyeball business,’ that includes YouTube and social media and everything else, you would say, ‘Actually, a combination of Netflix and Warner Bros. is still tiny on a relative basis, or maybe a quarter of the business, but it’s not a monopoly.'”

“That’s going to be the [argument for] the merits [of the deal],” the CNBC anchor said. “Then there’s going to be all of the drama about who’s connected to who and what.” You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.

“I think it’s a real sign of the savvy of [Netflix co-CEO] Ted Sarandos and Netflix. They were able to get in and steal this thing away from the Ellisons,” NBC News national affairs analyst John Heilemann noted of the deal. The journalist added that the wider “creative community in Hollywood” was likely going to be against another studio acquisition, no matter which party was trying to buy Warner Bros.

“They wouldn’t have been happy with Paramount making the deal,” Heilemann explained. “They’re not happy about Netflix making the deal, because they think it’s going to further consolidate the market and create fewer buyers for content.” Referencing Trump’s recent involvement in getting “Rush Hour 4” greenlit at Paramount, Heilemann speculated about whether or not the president will intervene in Netflix’s deal on behalf of the Ellisons.

“The likelihood that he’s not going to try to weigh in and try to mess this thing up for Netflix and try to get it somehow to his friends over at Paramount, I think that’s pretty unlikely,” Heilemann said. Sorkin, meanwhile, touched briefly on cinephiles’ concerns about what Netflix’s purchase of Warner Bros. could mean for the future of the theatrical movie business.

“Netflix has been against theatrical film for a very long time,” Sorkin noted. “There’s a question mark: Is Netflix now going to completely shift its policy and actually get into the theater business, meaning put more of its stuff in theaters, or is it going to be the opposite? Is everything now, all the stuff that was produced by Warner Bros. historically, is that now all going to get rushed back onto Netflix and actually it’s going to decimate the theater business?”

Sarandos notably told analysts Friday that the streamer is “really confident” it will receive regulatory approval for the acquisition. Regarding Netflix’s theatrical strategy, Sarandos said Friday the streamer will honor Warner Bros.’ traditional release approach, while also noting that he expects theatrical windows to continue to “evolve” to be “much more consumer friendly.”

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