Benedict Cumberbatch weighs in on Paramount-Warner Bros merger

Benedict Cumberbatch recently weighed in on Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

In an op-ed for The Guardian, headlined ‘A TV and cinema calamity could be disastrous for watch you watch and what you know. Act now to stop that,’ Cumberbatch along with Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong urged the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to intervene in the $111 billion merger for the good of the British screen industry.

They wrote, “Nandy has opened the door to intervention. She must walk through it, for the sake of everyone who makes UK television and film and everyone who watches it.”

“If she does not, we will be left without the ability to protect our industry and our culture from this consolidation. We must not push the public’s interest aside; we must stand up for it and block this merger,” the article read.

Cumberbatch expressed concerns saying that the Paramount-Warner merger would put the “livelihoods of thousands of workers” at risk in the UK.

“They are also anxious about the concentration of news services, given that the combined company would control 5 News, CNN International, and CBS News,” it said.

The actors mentioned, “One owner controlling this much of the news, and the truth, endangers the public in a way no ordinary consolidation does.”

“Paramount’s chief executive reportedly told Donald Trump that he would make ‘sweeping changes’ to CNN if the deal went through,” the article stated.

The actors however added that Nandy department if decided to intervene, “it may prove one of the most important decisions any culture secretary has taken for UK film, television and media in a generation”.

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