Three Democratic U.S. senators are urging the FCC to prevent Paramount Skydance from closing its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until the government’s national security review of the foreign investors in the deal has run its course.
In a letter dated June 18 sent to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, the lawmakers — Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — cited Paramount’s April 24 petition seeking a declaratory ruling from the FCC for approval of “significant foreign investment.”
Booker, Warren and Schiff requested that the FCC, by July 1, issue “formal notice to Paramount that the transaction may not close” while the review of the foreign investments is proceeding.
Paramount in that filing disclosed that the merged Paramount-WBD would be 49.5% owned by foreign investors, with about 38.5% of the equity in the new company owned by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. In addition, Paramount’s filing asked asked the FCC to authorize up to 100% foreign equity ownership in its broadcast licensees.
Congress set a 25% limit on direct foreign ownership of American TV and radio stations without prior FCC approval. The senators, in their June 18 letter to Carr, noted, “Under FCC rulemaking and procedures, the Commission must now coordinate, through the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, with other executive branch agencies to assess the potential national security and foreign policy risks posed by that foreign ownership.”
