The US Justice Department has waved through the merger of Warner Bros and Paramount, a consolidation that would have made J.P. Morgan blush.
While the deal may seem a mere corporate reshuffling, it is a portent for British media giants staring into the abyss of irrelevance. The message from Washington is clear: bigness is back, and antitrust is dead. This is not the fall of Rome, but it is the return of the robber barons.
The DoJ’s blessing is a stark admission that the federal government has abdicated its role as a check on industrial concentration. We are now in an era where media power will be concentrated in the hands of a few American titans, leaving British outlets like the BBC and ITV scrambling for scraps. The only question is: will our lords of the press roll over, or will they fight for a distinct British voice in a homogenised American landscape?
