Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was launched into the middle of a congressional culture war on Tuesday as he testified before a Senate subcommittee about the company’s attempt to buy a large part of Warner Bros Discovery.
The hearing before the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee highlighted an array of traditional merger concerns on both sides of the aisle: that the deal could potentially raise costs for consumers, limit their theater experiences, or shrink the market for entertainment jobs. But a large chunk of the session also focused on Netflix’s allegedly “woke” programming, including content that features transgender characters.
Netflix is facing a competing bid from Paramount Skydance, run by CEO David Ellison, the son of President Donald Trump’s close ally and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. WBD has rejected Paramount’s offer, but Republicans are pushing to knock Netflix out of the running.
“Why in the world would we give a seal of approval or a thumbs up to make you the largest behemoth on the planet related to content?” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) asked. “It seems as though you have engaged in creating not only a monopoly of content, potentially, but the wokest content in the history of the world.”
After subcommittee Ranking Member Cory Booker (D-NJ) began his questioning following Schmitt by saying he’d get back to the topic of antitrust, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) countered that the question of content was relevant to the topic at hand. “If there are folks across America who are already struggling with their limited options,” she said to the executives, “you’re proposing you become even larger, and I am just saying maybe that shouldn’t have been a joke, ‘let’s get back to antitrust,’ let’s truly talk about whether there are going to be options.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) made a hard pivot from his questioning on whether Netflix would commit to using union labor and pay residuals on streaming content to ask, “Why is it that so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology?” Hawley alleged that “almost half” of its content for minor children, excluding older teens, “promotes a transgender ideology agenda.” Sarandos said he didn’t know where that alleged number came from, and said that “Netflix has no political agenda of any kind.”
The French film Cuties featured heavily at the hearing as an example of oversexualized kids content. The movie, which was created as a commentary on the sexualization of young girls and Sarandos said is rated for mature audiences, not kids, became a symbol of Netflix’s alleged ideologically-driven library. Billionaire and Trump backer Elon Musk previously led a campaign against Netflix over shows like Dead End: Paranormal Park and The Baby-Sitters Club for featuring trans characters. GOP lawmakers also pointed to Netflix’s staff’s primarily Democratic-leaning political donations and content featuring LGBTQ+ characters as other examples of its bias.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked Sarandos and WBD Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell if they’d watched the Grammys this weekend (only Sarandos caught the “tail end”). “Are we right now on stolen land?” Cruz asked pointedly, referencing artist Billie Eilish’s speech opposing ICE, where she said, “no one is illegal on stolen land.” Both said they didn’t know. (The Grammys were broadcast on CBS, which is owned by Paramount Skydance.)
Ellison declined an invitation to attend the hearing because he believed it wouldn’t be helpful given the circumstances, Booker said. But Ellison met with lawmakers privately, and Booker described his conversation with him as “fruitful.” Paramount’s bid could raise some of the same concerns as Netflix’s, but Ellison’s father’s close tie to President Donald Trump would potentially assuage some of the content concerns for Republicans, and raise them for Democrats.
Booker raised deep concerns about whether any transaction would be reviewed fairly by independent enforcers under the Trump administration. Sarandos admitted he’d met with Trump shortly before the deal was announced, but that the deal was not discussed in detail and was not the primary purpose of the conversation. “I do not trust this administration in their evaluations, and I just pray to God that everything that you all hope might come should this move forward, that you all attested to, comes to pass,” Booker said.
