Football is a great game, but it would quickly lose its luster if every time the referees stepped onto the field they had a secret meeting to discuss implementing new rules. Likewise, capitalism and entrepreneurship have driven our country forward since our founding, but if the government continues to step in and make up and arbitrarily apply new rules then these economic growth engines will begin to lose their luster. As Netflix continues to work through its bid to acquire Warner Brothers, there is a question about whether the government referees are coming up with new rules and whether those new rules are going to change the way companies want to grow and compete.
Under the Biden Administration, mergers and acquisitions slowed to a crawl because the default position of antitrust enforcers was that no acquisition was good. Their position wasn’t that mergers were bad for consumers necessarily, but rather that consumers, workers, or even sometimes the environment could be harmed. Big is bad was the standard for the Neo-Brandeisian movement—disregarding any economic benefits.
When the Trump Administration took over, mergers and acquisitions opened back up. Entrepreneurs started looking for ways to grow and compete. And, as a result there is again fire in the economy—despite some of the other political distractions.
However, populism is a part of the MAGA movement. Populism is powerful, but it can be fickle as the will of the people can change from day-to-day. For instance, a majority of people might like free cars, but legislation to make that happen would have a large impact not just on the economy, but on innovation and quality in the auto industry. This is why the consumer welfare standard for antitrust was developed. The idea of the consumer welfare standard is that the government should be okay with mergers and acquisitions as long as they will benefit consumers – and may not use merger review to chase non-economic goals like the Green New Deal or union takeovers.
The fact is that when companies want to merge—especially in a competitive market like entertainment—the end goal is always for the consumer to benefit. It is only by benefitting consumers that merging companies can hope to become more competitive.
The consumer welfare standard has worked well, but now some of the other market players are asking the government referees to change the rules. These changes would allow these cronies to appeal to populists, but their request is based on the fundamentally bad and arbitrary argument that Netflix doesn’t compete with YouTube and TikTok. This would be laughable were it not for the fact that these executives either don’t understand the modern television market or are so out of touch with their own consumers that it should worry their stockholders.
A better guide to the shape of the market is the industry’s own statements – like their August 2025 observation that “this vibrant sector now includes major new studio entrants like Amazon Studios but also others like Apple Studios, innovative distribution platforms such as YouTube TV, and even rapidly evolving content ecosystems on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and the broader YouTube platform, all vying for audience attention and content.”
We now all have access to any streaming service that we want. We don’t have to venture to the local theater to consume entertainment or adjust the rabbit ears on our TVs into some awkward position so that our parents can watch the news. In fact, with YouTube TV we can watch 4 news channels at the same time. And we can find hundreds of news sources—of varying reliability—on YouTube and TikTok and dozens of other options.
We are no longer limited to three television channels and a VCR. Instead, we have an endless choice which requires that companies compete for our attention with increasing investments in quality. It is an amazing time to be a consumer of media. Yet for content creators, it is scary to enter into the market. It might even be scarier to figure out how to maintain market share and stay innovative when anyone with a camera and a dream is trying to compete for the same eyeballs. But that’s how competition works – and ultimately consumers win!
Fortunately, the Trump Administration hasn’t stood in the way of mergers at this point and hasn’t followed the Biden-Khan led Neo-Brandeisian movement. Hopefully they don’t follow the pleadings of out of touch cronies attempting to get government referees to regulate the market as if it were the year 1925 instead of 2025.
