Dem senators urge FCC to put Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger on hold over foreign investor worries

Three Democratic senators have urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to put the Paramount-Warner Bros.Discovery merger on pause over concerns about foreign investors controlling what would be one of the largest media companies in the United States.In a joint letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, senators Cory Booker, D- N.J.; Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded he “must foreclose any attempt by Paramount to close this transaction” before an adequate review of the involved foreign investors is completed.The lawmakers said the FCC must conduct this review to evaluate possible “national security threats posed by foreign government investment” in the $110 billion entity.

If approved, the merger would bring CNN and CBS News under one corporate owner, further consolidating the news media landscape.Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, acknowledged in an April financial disclosure cited by the senators that foreign ownership in the new corporation will rise to “approximately 49.5 percent.” In that document, Paramount also said that all voting rights will be “controlled by the Ellison family through U.S.entities.”The document revealed that Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund and various entities based in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar would be equity holders.Paramount told the FCC in April that this arrangement would not present “any national security, law enforcement, or foreign or trade policy concerns.”The senators want a more rigorous check of what this level of foreign ownership would mean, telling Carr in their letter that he should not take the Ellison family’s statements “at face value.”They argued that the FCC should reject Paramount’s petition for preemptive approval.

Under Section 310 of the 1934 Communications Act, foreign individuals, companies and governments are generally prohibited from owning more than 25% of a U.S.-based firm that has an FCC-issued broadcast license.Booker, Schiff a...