In a letter to Netflix and Warner Discovery leaders, the Chairman of the Senate Antitrust committee, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), has warned that a proposed acquisition of Warner Bros by the tech giant Netflix raises major red flags around competition.
The deal, said Sen. Lee, “appears likely to raise serious antitrust issues, including the risk of substantially lessening competition in streaming markets.”
The Senate Antitrust chairman argued that the acquisition process itself to be a competition matter, saying it “raises concerns about potential abuse of the merger review process,” particularly if an acquirer obtains “competitively sensitive information under the guise of due diligence.”
The process, wrote Sen. Lee, “could operate as a so-called ‘killer non-acquisition,’ effectively weakening a major competitor through the pendency of the merger review process.”
Lee’s objections arrive as Capitol Hill prepares for a February 3 antitrust hearing where Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos will be called to testify under oath about the national implications of what would be a $70+ billion media consolidation unmatched in U.S. history.
Netflix’s proposed deal isn’t just another merger. If approved, it would consolidate streaming dominance and content creation under a single platform with tens of millions more subscribers than any competitor.
As Breitbart News previously reported, the deal has been slammed by conservative commentators including Jack Posobiec and Benny Johnson.
Weeks before Lee’s intervention, former President Donald Trump himself signaled skepticism, describing the merger as something that “could be a problem” given Netflix’s already dominant market footprint, and hinting at broader concerns around corporate reach and cultural influence.
If Netflix absorbs Warner’s content — from Batman to Friends to HBO — conservatives fear it will control not just market share but narrative power, shaping American cultural consumption on an unprecedented scale, by a company which has shown little willingness to remain neutral in the culture wars.
Breitbart News has frequently criticized Netflix for its love affair with extreme leftist values. John Nolte previously explained why these valued have made Netflix “Unwatchable:”
I’m sure that there’s a pony or two in Netflix’s massive pile of woke/gay/white guilt/male-bashing/anti-Christian/anti-family/pro-perversion shit, but life is too short to sort through it. And it’s such a shame because Netflix is literally spending billions and billions of dollars on garbage no one will ever watch. And when there’s competition out there, people are not going to pay $15 a month for a streaming service that holds nothing for them.
While Netflix’s own reports and partnerships emphasize inclusion goals across race, gender, and other axes, detractors argue that such efforts have become performative or even discriminatory — and that Netflix doubles down on these priorities even as the broader legal and political winds turn against them.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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