By Kevin Stocklin

While Congress may have little say in whether Netflix’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. goes through, senators expressed serious reservations about the combination, a possible sign of what’s in store from federal regulators.

At a Feb. 3 hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, lawmakers from both parties expressed numerous concerns to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Chief Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell regarding the merger, including fewer entertainment jobs, higher prices for streaming services, and harm to America’s movie theaters.

In addition, conservative lawmakers objected to Netflix expanding its control over the media landscape, charging that the company has a left-wing bias in its content and targets children with inappropriately sexualized content. 

The decision whether or not to approve the merger rests with the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, and potentially state attorneys general and the European Commission. However, many of the issues that senators raised are likely to also be key factors in the decisions made by these agencies.

Netflix leads the market for the streaming of movies and television shows. Warner Bros. is a storied and profitable movie and television studio, with an extensive media library that would add exponentially to Netflix’s online offering. Warner’s properties include HBO, Discovery, and DC Comics, as well as the Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter franchises. 

The combination of Netflix and Warner Bros. would create a Hollywood heavyweight that could dominate both entertainment production and distribution. However, when it comes to assessing whether a merger violates antitrust laws, the market share of a post-merger company depends on what regulators say the market is. 

“How you define the market in which the merged entity would make its appearance makes a big difference,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told those at the hearing. “In a subscription video-on-demand market, if it were defined in that way, the combined firm would likely exceed the 30 percent market share threshold, thus triggering a presumption of illegality established by the Supreme Court and long-standing precedent.”

Taking a broader view of the market, Sarandos responded that Netflix currently produces only about 9 percent of U.S. entertainment content and that its share would increase to 10 percent with the merger. Regarding the streaming market, he said that Netflix currently controls 18 percent of that market, which would increase to 21 percent with the merger. 

Despite such assurances, Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.) called the merger a “concerning consolidation” of the media industry, saying it could lead to higher costs for consumers, less content, and fewer creative jobs. Lawmakers also expressed concern that Netflix’s takeover of Warner Bros. would harm movie theaters, with more Warner films going to online streaming.

“A combined firm could limit access to popular content, limit licensing options, and make it harder for rivals to emerge and compete,” Lee said. “Theater owners worry about shorter release windows and fewer wide theatrical releases, which could harm neighborhood cinemas, those they employ, and affect local economies.”

In response, Sarandos pledged that Warner Bros. would continue to create theatrical releases and would maintain the typical 45-day window, in which movies first run in theaters before going to home viewing. He stated that the combined company would create more content, not less, and that there was little overlap to eliminate in the two companies’ business lines.

President Donald Trump stated in December that he would be involved in the decision regarding the merger.

He said that economists would have to weigh in on the impact, noting that the merged companies would command “a big market share,” which he said “could be a problem.”

Charges of Political Bias

Republican senators criticized Netflix for what they regarded as the overt politicization of its content in favor of the Democratic Party.

“Netflix has long been a left-wing company,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stated.

“Your founder, Reed Hastings, is one of the biggest Democrat donors in the country, including giving millions recently to the massive gerrymander in California,” Cruz said. “Susan Rice from the Obama White House is on your board of directors, and you guys gave $50 million to the Obamas, as far as I can tell, to produce no discernible content whatsoever.” 

According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, more than 99 percent of employee political contributions at Netflix went to Democratic candidates, although the company itself does not engage in political donations, and Sarandos insisted that it has “no political agenda.” 

Sarandos responded to charges of bias, stating that about 40 percent of Netflix subscribers are conservative.

“If we fail to entertain them by trying to promote propaganda or anything other than entertainment, we fail,” he said.

Netflix has also faced criticism for producing sexualized content in its programs for children. 

“Why is it that so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology?” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked. Mentioning his three young children, Hawley said, “I can’t let them watch anything on Netflix unless I preview it, because I don’t have confidence in what’s on your platform. I don’t know what they’re going to encounter.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) likewise charged that “Netflix continues to push sexual and gender theory on kids” and that “41 percent of G-rated kid-approved series contain LGBTQIA+ content.”

Sarandos responded that Netflix produces a broad array of content for a diverse audience and that it has “state-of-the-art” parental controls that allow parents to block any shows they think are inappropriate for children. 

On this topic, however, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk recently urged his followers on X to “cancel Netflix for the health of your kids.”

Activist investor Jerry Bowyer submitted a shareholder resolution in 2025 in which he criticized what he said was Netflix’s “disturbing & egregious messaging regarding the sexualization of children.”

“They’re out there doing this extreme, offensive stuff that saps the political goodwill when you’ve got to be a good corporate citizen to get the regulators to sign off,” Bowyer told The Epoch Times. “This merger could be an existential issue for them, and if all this awful content they’ve been putting out—ignoring warnings from conservatives, ignoring warnings from parents, ignoring warnings from faith groups—ends up killing the merger, as a shareholder, I don’t like that, although as a citizen I think it’s well deserved.”