Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy organization for women, is urging the Justice Department to block Netflix’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The organization shared a copy of the letter exclusively with The Daily Wire on Thursday morning. It raises concerns about Netflix’s transparency with families and a lack of clarity in how it applies age-based ratings and content disclosures to programs marketed to children.
The letter from CWA also argued that the proposed merger “threatened competition and the public interest.”
It pointed out that television viewership has changed and said streaming platforms have enormous sway over the viewing public, but are at the same time less regulated.
“By absorbing Warner Brothers’ extensive content library and distribution assets, Netflix would surpass the 30% market share threshold, making it a presumptive monopoly, and giving it unprecedented dominance in the streaming ecosystem,” the letter says. “Allowing such consolidation would reduce competition, harm consumers, and create a structural imbalance that would be exceptionally difficult to reverse, especially in view of the absence of a dedicated regulatory authority for streaming.”
CWA President and CEO Penny Nance wrote in the letter that Netflix has been notoriously vague about content marketed to children. The organization cited a December study finding that one-third of all Netflix shows rated for children include LGBT characters, themes, or messaging, with that percentage jumping to 41% for TV-G and TV-Y7 categories, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
Nance argued that if the Justice Department did not block the merger, it should, at a minimum, “secure concrete, enforceable commitments and publish clear public‑interest expectations for streaming platforms,” including third-party ratings, clearer content labels, including for LGBT material, enhanced child-protective settings, and frequent audits.
In a written statement to The Daily Wire, Nance said she does not believe a potential acquisition involving Paramount would raise the same concerns as the proposed Netflix deal.
“Our concerns with Netflix stem mainly from its lack of transparency around content ratings, given that children’s programming has a large amount of LGBTQ content that is not disclosed to parents,” Nance said. “Paramount does not wield the same market influence as Netflix. The DOJ must reject Netflix’s bid for Warner Bros.”
Warner Bros. agreed in December to an $82.7 billion deal with Netflix. Since then, Paramount has submitted several hostile takeover bids in an effort to block the agreement, though none have succeeded.
Warner Bros. Discovery is currently reviewing Paramount Skydance’s latest offer: $31-per-share cash. It includes a $7 billion regulatory termination fee and coverage of their $2.8 billion breakup fee with Netflix.
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