Published: 09:45 AM, 08 June 2026
Hollywood workers rally against Paramount-Skydance deal
As he spoke at a gathering on Saturday to protest Paramount Skydance's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, stand-up comedian Adam Conover framed the ongoing media consolidation as an existential threat to an industry that made the United States a cultural power.
"It's about to die, and that's why I feel so passionately about this issue," he said.
Conover was a featured speaker on Saturday at an event billed as the first stop in a three-city “Main Street vs. The Merger” tour bringing together entertainment workers, small business owners and politicians who oppose Paramount Skydance's plan to absorb Warner Bros. Discovery in a $110 billion transaction.
About 100 people gathered at Lumiere Music Hall in Los Angeles for the event, which was organized by advocacy groups, the Writers Guild of America and industry workers who wanted to voice their concerns about the merger.
US antitrust regulators appear poised to approve the combination, amid assurances from Paramount Skydance that the deal would not hurt other studios or creative talent. CEO David Ellison has pledged that the combined Paramount and Warner studios would stay productive by releasing at least 30 films a year.
But a group of ?US states including California and New York are preparing a lawsuit to block the deal, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
Conover knows firsthand the toll of cost-cutting from media mergers. After AT&T's 2018 acquisition of Time Warner, his TruTV show "Adam Ruins Everything" was canceled, putting employees, "countless" contractors and more than 100 others out of work.
The job losses reflect an entertainment industry where employment has declined since its peak in late 2022.
California has been especially hard hit, shedding 17,234 positions from 2019 through 2023, according to the Milken Institute. It concluded that a combination of factors — including shrinking television ad revenue and stagnating streaming growth — convinced studios to look for less-expensive places to make movies and series.
