Blueprint

California's antitrust fight over the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger escalates this week as AG Rob Bonta hires Milbank litigator Richard Parker, with nearly a dozen states reportedly drafting a joint complaint. Reid and Grant unpack the DOJ's disputed clearance, including reports that career antitrust staff wanted to sue before leadership closed the case following a two-hour Ellison inter...

Week of June 30, 2026. This episode covers the DOJ's June 12 clearance of the $111 billion Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger — and everything that happened behind it. Career antitrust investigators spent eight months on the case, leaned toward recommending a lawsuit, and were cut out of the final decision entirely. Reid and Grant work through three questions the deal still hasn't answered: C...

Week of June 23, 2026. As the DGA ratification vote closes June 25, Blueprint examines the completed above-the-line labor cycle — WGA in April, SAG-AFTRA in May, DGA now — all three guilds accepting four-year terms after studios pushed unsuccessfully for five. Reid Mercer and Grant dig into the DGA deal's specifics: a 24.4% health contribution increase, AI directorial authority language that Deadl...

Week of June 16, 2026. This episode examines the Directors Guild of America's new four-year contract with the AMPTP, ratified in 29 days — the fastest resolution of the current Hollywood labor cycle. Reid and Grant work through the deal's headline numbers: a 35 percent drop in DGA television employment during 2024, a 24.4 percent increase in studio health fund contributions, and a 5 percent wage h...

Week of June 2, 2026. This episode covers Paramount's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery at a $110 billion enterprise value — the largest leveraged buyout in history, carrying $87 billion in gross pro forma debt and leverage sitting at roughly 7x 2026 EBITDA. Reid Mercer and Grant work through the deal's financial architecture and its operational consequences, arguing over three centra...

Week of May 26, 2026. The 2026 Cannes Marché drew a record 16,000 participants from more than 140 countries — and almost no one was closing deals. Reid Mercer and Grant dig into the paradox of peak attendance masking a structural buyer shortage, tracing the root causes through consolidation, collapsed pay-one windows, and retreating studio capital. The hosts argue through three contested questions...

Week of May 12, 2026. This episode covers the back-to-back WGA and SAG-AFTRA contract ratifications with the AMPTP, both closed in under two months following 2023's 148-day strike. Reid and Grant work through the headline numbers — a $321 million WGA health fund injection, SAG's 3% annual raises, a 5% streaming residual bump, and a long-delayed pension merger — before pressing on the concessions u...

Week of May 19, 2026. This episode covers the 2026 upfronts week in New York City, where eight companies pitched ad buyers across three days of Manhattan theater events — and where forward commitments made before a frame is shot will determine which shows get greenlit next year. Reid and Grant work through the real economics underneath the spectacle: Is Netflix's $3 billion ad revenue projection f...

Week of May 5, 2026. This episode covers the $111 billion WBD-Paramount merger, approved by shareholders in ten minutes and now awaiting DOJ and European regulatory clearance. Reid Mercer and Grant work through what David Ellison's acquisition of HBO, CNN, Warner Bros., and CBS actually means for the industry — and who it leaves behind. The hosts argue three core questions: whether the combined pl...