The Paramount-WBD merger: bad news for Hollywood, great news for Tennessee? | Dave Schilling

Yet more consolidation means one less studio, inevitable redundancies and a blow to this city's cultural heritage

There are simply too many companies in the world. Apple, Google, Amazon, Ryanair. I'm probably forgetting some. How could I not? There are so many companies. Thankfully, here in Hollywood, we're culling the herd. My memory says thanks. My career, on the other hand, does not.

After Disney swallowing up 20th Century Fox (which is now just called 20th Century Studios", making it sound like a company that makes gramophones), Discovery merging with Warner Brothers, and Skydance buying Paramount, you'd think the industry would be done kneecapping itself through strategic acquisitions. Wrong again, friend. Warner Bros Discovery - swimming in debt and loaded up with depreciating cable TV assets - put itself on the market only three years after its last merger. First they went to Netflix, then to Paramount, after Netflix realized they like profit too much. Now a Paramount-WBD merger is progressing. All of this means one less movie studio, inevitable redundancies and more consolidation of vision.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist