BRUSSELS — The multi-billion-dollar battle between Netflix and Paramount to buy Warner Bros. Discovery has moved to the heart of Europe.

Warner Bros. has accepted Netflix’s $82.7 billion bid (which would also include buying HBO) — which Netflix amended this week to a cash offer. But that’s not stopping Paramount, whose $108.4 billion offer for a larger chunk of the business was rejected, from doing all it can to stay in the race.

Paramount has met with officials at the European Commission’s competition department, DG COMP, to discuss the Warner Bros. deal as it edges closer to submitting a draft of its formal filing, according to a person familiar with the case, granted anonymity to speak freely. Paramount’s aim is to speed up the process of getting the Commission to give an antitrust greenlight for its Warner Bros. bid.

On a tour of European capitals earlier this month, Paramount CEO David Ellison went to the heart of European cinema, Paris, and had lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron. 

He also booked time with the culture ministers of France and the U.K., signaling that the company’s strategy in Europe is not just to throw in more cash to secure a deal, but rather to win over hearts and minds by appealing to the continent’s love of the arts.

Paramount hopes that support from European politicians and leading cultural figures will overcome the reservations Warner Bros. shareholders feel toward its bid, which they have repeatedly rejected.

That’s why while in Paris, Ellison also met with key figures from the film industry, including the president of the National Film Board, Gaëtan Bruel; Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas; Richard Patry, the head of the French Exhibition Association; and Metropolitan Filmexport boss Victor Hadida. 

Part of its strategy is to talk up its love of cinema and to claim that it can defend the movies against streaming giant Netflix. As part of its bid, Paramount has promised to release at least 30 films in theaters every year, and committed to honor “healthy traditional windows” of movie releases.

The death of cinema?

The cinema industry has reservations about both bids.

The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC) — which held a meeting with the European Commission’s competition department last week — namechecked theatrical release schedules as a “key principle” that had to be protected in any deal in a statement.

But it said Thursday that it doesn’t support either of the current bids, adding that both could result in a “significant downside for European cinema.”

UNIC’s key worry is that after the deal, the U.S. will end up producing fewer movies, to the detriment of European cinemagoers. French movies might get critical acclaim, but what really drives revenue are Hollywood blockbusters.

EPP support

One victory Paramount has scored has been to draw the support of one of the European Parliament’s most influential lawmakers, Germany’s Andreas Schwab from the center-right European People’s Party. 

Schwab, a competition policy expert, has been following the deal since its early days and was quick to warn the Commission against a potential Amazon offer for Warner Bros. last year.

And ultimately it’s the competition argument, rather than the cultural one, that won him over.

“The Paramount bid would be a better choice than Netflix for the balance of the market,” he told POLITICO. 

Beefing up

Both camps have entrusted global public affairs consultancies with well-rooted Brussels branches to massage the message: FGS Global for Netflix and Brunswick for Paramount.

Each firm has also lined up legal heavyweights. Netflix is advised by global U.S. law firm Skadden, whose Brussels team is led by Ingrid Vandenborre (her CV includes getting Activision Blizzard’s $69 billion acquisition by Microsoft in 2023 over the line after an epic cross-border antitrust review). 

Paramount relies on U.S. global powerhouse Latham & Watkins; in the driving seat is Carles Esteva Mosso, formerly a senior official at DG COMP.

Warner Bros., meanwhile, is advised by another of Brussels’ top competition lawyers, Johan Ysewyn of Covington & Burling.

Netflix and Paramount had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.