Nithya Raman Splits From Mayor Karen Bass on Paramount-Warner Merger: ‘Should Be Decided in Court’

Los Angeles city councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman reiterated her opposition to the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, calling it a “bad deal” for entertainment workers and supporting California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit challenging the acquisition. “Los Angeles’ film industry is already in crisis. The Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger would deepen it, costing an estimated 4,500 film and television jobs, more than 10,000 jobs region-wide, and billions of dollars in economic activity, according to a new county report,” Raman said. “This is a bad deal for entertainment workers and a bad deal for Los Angeles. That’s why I support Attorney General Rob Bonta’s antitrust lawsuit and stand with the workers fighting this merger.” Raman also called on Bonta to take the lawsuit to court, with a trial set to begin in March 2027. The councilmember cited Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s recent threats to move Paramount’s headquarters to another state if a settlement is not reached by October 1, at which time the company would begin paying ticking fees to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders. “Paramount’s threat to leave California unless the lawsuit is dropped is an attempt to strong-arm our state. Serious questions about this merger’s legality should be decided in court, not through corporate threats,” she said. Raman’s comments come hours after her election opponent, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, became the latest California politician to call on Bonta to reach a settlement with Paramount that would allow the merger to proceed, joining others like former health secretary and California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. Bass called for the settlement to include commitments to keep Paramount in Los Angeles and to shoot more films and TV shows in the city. “It is time for all parties to come to the table. The continued uncertainty is not good for workers, not good for productions and not good for the future of this industry,” Bass said. “Too many productions in L.A. are now at a standstill, which means Angelenos are out of a job and they’re not getting paid.” The mayor’s comments earned a swift condemnation from the Writers Guild of America, which is also suing Paramount to block the merger and expressed disappointment that Bass had “chosen to join Paramount’s pressure campaign on public enforcers, to push through a merger that is being rightfully challenged as illegal and will lead to job losses in the entertainment industry.” “Paramount has created a false choice for entertainment industry workers: The company argues that enforcing antitrust law hurts us by creating uncertainty, which is of their own making as the company attempts to dominate the industry. We reject the claim that beleaguered industry workers must choose the possibility of a job today, in exchange for the certainty of job losses tomorrow,” the WGA said. Raman’s comments were first reported by THR.