California Kept the Lots and Let Paramount Keep CNN

Paramount Skydance settled a 12-state antitrust suit on September 21, 2026, clearing its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the coalition, said the pact is “not a vote of support for this merger.”

The terms that ended the case keep both Los Angeles studio lots open and leave CNN and CBS News under Paramount chief David Ellison, who had threatened to take the company out of California if the states would not deal.

The Decree Leaves CNN Inside the Combined Company

Bonta announced the settlement at a Los Angeles press conference, with a proposed consent decree filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The court still has to enter it. The filing dissolves a July 24, 2026 no-close order and lets the companies finish the purchase without admitting a Clayton Act violation.

The coalition is California plus Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington. The decree runs five years. It is heavy on film output and California stages, and light on the newsroom split East Coast attorneys general had wanted.

WHAT THE CONSENT DECREE BINDS FOR FIVE YEARS

Those bindings are the price of a California-shaped peace. They do not take CNN or CBS News out of Ellison’s company, and they do not force an upfront sale of any flagship cable channel.

Newsom Took the Exit Threat Seriously

The lawsuit was never only a San Francisco antitrust brief. It became a jobs fight inside California once Ellison told senior staff he was prepared to start moving Paramount if the states would not settle before an October 1 clock.

From that date, Paramount would owe Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders $7 million a day until the purchase closed. A trial had been set for March 2027. Holding out through that calendar would have piled a huge ticking fee onto a case Bonta still described as one he did not want to bless.

Gov. Gavin Newsom had already put his thumb on the scale. He said he was “very mindful” of what the fight would mean for the state’s reputation and that he took Ellison’s threat to leave “seriously.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and gubernatorial nominee Xavier Becerra also pressed for a deal. Ellison’s public thanks named Newsom by name, which is how the governor’s role showed up on the record.

THE SQUEEZE ON CALIFORNIA

1. July 2026: Bonta and 11 other attorneys general sue to block the purchase, arguing it would cut film output, raise prices and harm workers.
2. July 24, 2026: A no-close order freezes the deal while the case proceeds.
3. August 2026: Ellison tells Paramount executives he will start leaving California unless the states settle; Bonta calls the threat “blackmail.” Newsom says he takes it seriously.
4. September 21, 2026: Bonta announces the settlement in Los Angeles. Paramount thanks Newsom “for his support throughout this process.”
5. October 1, 2026: The daily shareholder fee was set to start if the purchase was still open.

Bonta had spent the summer saying behavioral promises were not enough and that he wanted structural remedies, meaning actual sales of assets. The decree he signed is a five-year operating agreement. Upfront, Paramount sells nothing of CNN, CBS News or the big film libraries.

Connecticut Wanted the Newsrooms Sold

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong was the loudest holdout on the news side. His office demanded full divestiture of CNN and CBS News through the talks, and he said Paramount had refused any editorial-independence term a week before the signing.

Connecticut wanted and demanded full divestiture of CNN and CBS News. We wanted to save ethical and independent journalism and news. We fought aggressively for that remedy. I am deeply disappointed that we could not do more. The complete abdication of the federal government’s enforcement role in this fight left states with one arm tied behind our backs.

William Tong, Connecticut attorney general, September 21, 2026 statement

Tong tied the urgency to President Donald Trump’s decision to bar CNN and other news organizations from the White House. He still signed, arguing the new board “will meaningfully help protect editorial independence” and will be enforceable under the decree. That is a smaller prize than a sale.

WHERE THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL SPLIT

• Bonta’s line: The settlement “resolves our antitrust concerns in every market alleged in our case” and puts workers first, even though it is not a vote of support for the merger.
• Tong’s line: The only remedy that would have saved independent news was selling CNN and CBS News, and the states could not get it without federal backup.

Federal antitrust staff had already cleared the purchase. So had European regulators. Once Washington stepped back, California’s leverage was the lots, the crews and the October fee, not a forced breakup of the news division.

Guilds Split Between Jobs and a Trial

Below-the-line unions treated the decree as a jobs document. IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb thanked Bonta for “protections for workers” and called it “a job well done.” Directors Guild of America national executive director Russell Hollander said the terms protect theatrical film and television markets and “bring clarity and stability” after a stretch of thin production. Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said protecting “workers on the frontlines of this merger” was the union’s highest priority.

SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin and national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland thanked Bonta and Letitia James and the rest of the coalition, then warned that the decree sets “the lowest standards that our employers must meet.”

A Statement From SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin and National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland Regarding Paramount/Warner Bros. Antitrust Settlement https://t.co/TBTuiLrI6g pic.twitter.com/DplpvKA67V

— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) September 21, 2026

On that statement thread, performers called the union note spineless and said the terms will not save the business. Guild headquarters took the production pledges. The people who posted under the statement took the merger itself as the harm.

THE GUILDS’ POSITIONS

• IATSE, DGA, Teamsters, LiUNA: Publicly backed the settlement as enforceable protection for U.S. film jobs and stages.
• SAG-AFTRA leadership: Thanked the attorneys general, then said members still need the law, not only collective bargaining, and that companies should exceed the decree.
• Writers Guild of America: Settled a separate suit the same day, still saying the merger will damage writers, because a nonprofit could not try the case alone.

The WGA’s price was specific and narrow. Paramount will $17.5 million into the guild health fund, cover the guild’s attorneys’ fees, and bar writer layoffs at CBS News Broadcast for five years. The guild said it still wants structural separation between streamers and studios, the old financial-interest idea from broadcast television, and that it could not spend millions taking the antitrust case to trial without the states.

Now that the Attorneys General have settled with Paramount, however, as a nonprofit, the WGA must contend with the reality of forging ahead alone, with no backing from government enforcers, with a complex antitrust lawsuit that would cost millions of dollars to pursue through trial.

Writers Guild of America, settlement statement, September 21, 2026

What the Five-Year Film Quota Requires

Bonta’s office sold the film chapter as the core consumer and labor fix, with five-year court-enforceable film commitments written into the decree. The annual count is only the headline. Each year must include at least four independent films and at least 20 percent tentpole titles. At least 20 of the first-wave films must be wide releases, rising to 21 in the later years. At least half of the slate must be produced or jointly produced by the merged company.

Qualifying titles keep a 45-day theatrical window and a 90-day holdback before subscription streaming. Fees charged to theater exhibitors must stay flat for three years. Miss the yearly count and Paramount owes $30 million per missing film, with $15 million headed to Hollywood labor health and retirement trusts, $12 million to the California Film and Television Fund, and $3 million to a national attorneys general antitrust fund. If the shortfall is not cured, the company must divest Miramax.

Bonta said about 5 percent of Paramount’s production is in the United States now. The extra spend is a floor, not a cap. If Congress passes a federal film tax credit of at least 20 percent, U.S. production must rise to 20 percent of the slate in years one and two and 30 percent after that. If California or New York also passes an uncapped credit, the U.S. share has to hit 40 percent. The merged company will also run a $5 million-a-year fund, $25 million in all, to buy independent films, and it must keep a free ad-supported streamer on the air, in the mold of Pluto TV.

That package is built for crews, lots and exhibitors. It is the chapter Newsom and Bass could take back to a city that has been short on stages. It is not a chapter that changes who owns the news.

Paramount’s Board Will Name the News Overseers

The News Editorial Independence Board is the term that let Tong and other holdouts sign without a CNN sale. The decree says the board must be stood up within 180 days of closing. It will have five established journalists, active or retired, each with at least ten years of work. Paramount’s board of directors names them. No more than two may be tied to the same political party.

The panel’s job, as written, is to set guiding editorial principles and to hear disputes between CBS News or CNN staff and management over alleged bias or failures to meet fairness standards. It is also supposed to watch independence from ownership and shareholders. An independent monitoring trustee, an internal compliance monitor and a five-state oversight committee will watch the rest of the decree.

The appointment power sits with the same corporate board that will own both newsrooms. Tong called that structure meaningful and enforceable. It is still a board inside Ellison’s company, not a new owner of CNN. Cable competition is handled the same way: for five years the merged firm must bargain Paramount basic channels separately from Warner basic channels, with firewalls on affiliate data. Break that rule and a court can order sales of BET, VH1, Comedy Central and other channels. CNN is not on that list.

Ellison Now Has a Path to Close in October

Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav told staff the purchase should close no later than early October. Ellison said that once the states and the WGA were addressed, “we have complete clearance for this merger.” He thanked Bonta, the other attorneys general, the WGA, “and to Governor Newsom for his support throughout this process.”

Bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery together will build that stronger Hollywood, creating expanded opportunity for our people and even more great entertainment for audiences around the world.

David Ellison, Paramount chairman and chief executive, September 21, 2026 statement

The merged company would put DC, Harry Potter, CBS, CNN, HBO and two major studios under one roof, with Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, at the top of that stack. The decree asks that company to shoot more films in the United States and to leave the Melrose and Burbank lots standing for five years. It does not ask it to sell the news.

Court approval is still required, and closing work remains. The people who moved the case were the ones with payrolls and stages in California, not the attorneys general who wanted CNN and CBS News cut loose.