NEW YORK (AP) — HBO Max, “Harry Potter” and CNN may soon find themselves under a new roof: Paramount.

That’s because shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery approved an $81 billion sale of the company on Thursday. Including debt, the proposed buyout valued at nearly $111 billion based on Warner’s current outstanding shares.

While the deal still faces regulatory review, the megamerger would vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape, further consolidating power in an industry already run by just a handful of major players. Paramount itself was acquired by Skydance just last year.

Here’s what a Paramount-Warner combo could mean for streaming, movies, news and more.

Streaming

Paramount Skydance would own both Paramount+ and, with the sale approved by shareholders Thursday, Warner’s HBO Max. Company executives have said that they would combine these streamers into one platform.

What that combined service would look like (or be named) is unclear. But Paramount CEO David Ellison suggested that HBO could still have some level of independence, at least production-wise.

“Our view point is, HBO should stay HBO,” Ellison said during a conference call last month. “They built a phenomenal brand, they are a leader in this space and we just want them to continue doing more of it. But by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone.”

Warner and its HBO streaming platform have a powerful lineup that includes “The Pitt,” “Game of Thrones” and “Sex and the City.” And beyond “Harry Potter,” Warner’s library lists blockbuster films such as “Sinners,” “Barbie” and “Superman” (the company also owns DC Studios). Titles like “Top Gun,” “Titanic,” “The Godfather” and “Yellowstone” fill Paramount’s catalog.

In the U.S., according to streaming guide JustWatch, HBO Max controlled about 12% of on-demand subscriptions in the first quarter of this year — compared to 3% for Paramount+. Combining those two services would still fall slightly below Prime Video’s 17% market share, and the 19% of the market commanded by Netflix. Disney owns about 27% of the market between Hulu and Disney+.

Beyond HBO Max, Paramount would also acquire Warner’s smaller Discovery+ streamer. And apart from Paramount+, Paramount owns Pluto TV and BET+, too.

Critics are skeptical of consumer benefits touted by Paramount. While company executives have continued to laud larger content libraries and the potential for Paramount to better compete with bigger rivals, a combination with Warner Bros. would mean fewer platform choices when it comes to streaming overall. Critics warn that could actually mean higher prices at a time when the price of almost all subscriptions continues to tick higher.

Moviemaking and theatrical releases

Paramount and Warner Bros. are two of Hollywood’s oldest studios. A merger would mean fewer companies control legacy film production.

Ellison has said he wants the combined company to grow a slate to more than 30 movies a year, keeping Paramount and Warner Bros. as stand-alone operations. And in a star-studded CinemaCon appearance last week, he promised a 45-day exclusive window for films in theaters, pledging a “complete commitment” to the industry.

Still, others are wary about what further consolidation could mean for jobs and which projects are greenlit down the road. Regulatory filings have indicated that the new ownership will be looking for ways to cut costs — including layoffs and downsizing some overlapping operations. Paramount is taking on billions of dollars in debt to finance the deal.

Warner Bros. just had a banner year of both major blockbusters and critical successes. The studio racked up 30 Oscar nominations thanks to “Sinners,” “Weapons,” and “One Battle After Another” (which took home the top best picture slot). Paramount received zero. And in 2025, Warner Bros. movies — including “A Minecraft Movie,” “Superman” and “Sinners” — accounted for 21% of the domestic box office. Paramount’s market share was only 6%, driven largely by “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

The industry has already experienced a sizeable consolidation. Almost 10 years ago, Hollywood’s big six became the big five when Disney bought most of 20th Century Fox. If the Warner sale goes through, a new “big four” era would be underway — with a bigger Paramount standing alongside Disney, Universal and Sony.

News

CNN would come under the same roof as Paramount-owned CBS. That would bring together two of America’s biggest names in television news, although whether CNN would continue to operate as a separate brand from CBS has yet to be confirmed.

Regardless, there is a lot of anxiety about Paramount taking control of CNN — a network that has long attracted ire from President Donald Trump and his allies. Critics point to Trump’s close relationship with the Ellison family, particularly billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who is putting up billions of dollars to back the bid by his son’s company.

Since coming under Skydance ownership less than a year ago, CBS has already seen significant shifts in editorial leadership. It’s taken steps to appeal to more conservative viewers in its news operations, notably with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. If the company’s proposed Warner takeover is successful, many expect similar changes at CNN.

Some officials in the Trump administration have also made their opinions very clear about CNN’s future ownership. In March, the White House attacked CNN for its coverage of the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

Ellison has said that editorial independence “will absolutely be maintained” under Paramount ownership. “It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN,” Ellison told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” in March, while noting that his company wants to speak to “the 70%” of viewers who he said identify as center-left or center-right.

The acting head of the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division has also said that its regulatory review will not be political. Still, critics are skeptical — particularly following Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount. That merger was approved by the Federal Communications Commission just weeks after the company agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over editing at CBS’ “60 Minutes” program. The president has continued to publicly lash out at “60 Minutes” programming since.

Other TV and cable networks

CNN is just one of the cable operations that Warner is selling. And the proposed merger would make Paramount’s TV footprint even bigger.

The company also owns Discovery, TNT, TBS, Food Network, Cartoon Network and Animal Planet, among other networks — all of which would come under Paramount ownership if the deal goes through. Meanwhile, Paramount already has its own sizeable broadcast lineup. Beyond CBS, that includes Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Showtime and more.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget plan that would fund ICE and Border Patrol over Democratic objections and sending it to the House.

The entire department has been shut down since mid-February as Democrats have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents. Republicans are now trying to fund the two immigration enforcement agencies through the complicated, time-consuming process called budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts last year with no Democratic votes.

“We have a multistep process ahead of us, but at the end Republicans will have helped ensure that America’s borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when they only hold 53 seats. But it also comes with increased scrutiny from the Senate parliamentarian and a long, open-ended series of amendment votes at the beginning and the end of the process.

The Senate held the first series of votes through the night, starting Wednesday evening and into early Thursday morning, with Democrats proposing amendments to lower health care expenses and other costs in an effort to contrast with Republicans’ focus on Trump’s campaign of immigration enforcement.

“Instead of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol, Republicans should be working with Democrats to lower out-of-pocket costs,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The Senate adopted the final resolution 50-48, just past 3:30 a.m.

A lengthy effort to reopen Homeland Security

Once the House approves the framework and the Senate Parliamentarian approves it, the two chambers can then move to pass the measure.

The Senate has already voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the department, but Republican leaders in the House say they won’t take that bill up until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, as well.

The $70 billion budget resolution would fund the two agencies for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Thune and other GOP leaders say they hope to keep the bill narrowly focused on ICE and Border Patrol and get it to Trump’s desk in the coming weeks, along with the rest of Homeland Security Department funding that has already passed the Senate.

But that could prove difficult as many in the party see the budget bill as the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for farmers and Trump’s proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., briefly held up the vote series late Wednesday, frustrated that the bill would not include parts of the SAVE America Act or other legislation.

“This is the last train leaving the station,” Kennedy said, predicting they would not be able to pass any other major bills ahead of November’s midterm elections. But he withdrew his objections and allowed the voting to proceed.

Democrats say reform needed at ICE and Border Patrol after shootings

Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.

After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the DHS funding lapsed with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

In March, the Senate passed the legislation by voice vote that would separate out ICE and Border Patrol and fund the rest of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration as security lines grew long at some airports. But Republicans in the House refused to consider it, saying they wouldn’t support any bill that didn’t include money for immigration enforcement.

Congress then left town for a two-week recess, leaving the issue unresolved. Trump has used executive orders to pay some department salaries in the meantime, but the future of those paychecks is uncertain.

Potential roadblocks in the House

During the recess, Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that they would pursue a two-track approach — pass the Senate bill that includes most of the department’s funding through regular order and use the party-line bill to pass ICE and CBP funding.

Weeks later, though, Johnson has still not said when the House will take up the Senate’s legislation that would fund the rest of the department. And it is unclear if members of his GOP conference will unite behind the narrowed budget bill as some House Republicans have argued, like Sen. Kennedy, that they should add other priorities to the legislation.

Johnson said this week that the sequencing of the two bills is important. House lawmakers don’t want to see the rest of the department funded without ICE and Border Patrol, he said.

But Thune warned after the Senate vote that other parts of the Homeland Security Department may run out of money before they are able to finish the winding budget process and fund those two agencies. He said he hopes the adoption of the budget resolution is a signal to the House that “we’re going to be following through.”

“We’ll see what they can do with it,” Thune said. “And if they can’t, I guess we will go to the next plan.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, underscoring the ongoing threat to global energy supplies and complicating efforts to bring the United States and Iran together for talks to end the war.

The attacks, which Iranian media said were carried out by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, due to expire on Wednesday.

But Trump said the U.S. would continue to blockade Iranian ports, and the attacks reinforced the dangers to traffic in the strait, through which 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas pass in peacetime.

That means that even if the ceasefire largely holds — and Iran and the U.S. do not resume major attacks — the war will continue to weigh heavily on the global economy. Already the conflict has sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products. The longer the strait remains closed, the more severe and widespread the effects will be — and the longer it will take the economy to bounce back.

Iran has offered no formal acknowledgment of Trump’s extension, but an Iranian diplomat said talks would not resume until the blockade is lifted.

Three ships come under attack in the Strait of Hormuz

Iran opened fire on a container ship in the strait on Wednesday morning, and a second was attacked a short time later, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.

Iranian state television reported later reported that the ships were in the Revolutionary Guard’s custody and being taken to Iran. It identified the vessels as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas. The ship’s owners could not be immediately reached for comment.

The seizures represent an escalation by Iran’s leaders, who appear poised to drive a harder bargain with American negotiators after two other rounds of talks with the Trump administration ended in open warfare.

The semiofficial Nour News, Fars and Mehr news agencies then reported the Guard attacked a third vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating.

The UKMTO said the first ship was attacked by a Revolutionary Guard gunboat that did not hail the ship before firing. It added that nobody was hurt in the attack.

Iran’s Nour News, however, reported that the Guard only opened fire on the ship after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces.” Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency described the attack as Iran “lawfully enforcing” its control over the Strait of Hormuz.

There have been more than 30 attacks on ships in the Mideast since the war began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

It’s not clear when talks will restart

Iran’s ability to restrict traffic through the strait — which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean — has proved a major strategic advantage.

While the ceasefire means that American and Israeli airstrikes have stopped in Iran — and Tehran’s missiles no longer target Israel and the wider Middle East — the attacks in the strait and earlier American interdictions of Iranian ships show the maritime threat remains.

Without any diplomatic agreement, those attacks may continue, likely deterring more ships from even attempting to pass through the strait, and further squeeze global energy supplies.

On Wednesday, Brent crude oil, the international standard, was trading higher than $98 a barrel, up 35% since the war started.

Iran appeared to dig in Wednesday, with its Revolutionary Guard vowing to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets in the region.”

The night before, hard-line supporters of Iran’s theocracy held rallies in which the Guard showed off missiles and launchers — a sign of defiance to Israel and the U.S., which devoted much of their airstrike campaign to destroying the county’s ballistic missile arsenal.

It’s not clear when talks might restart. Two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that Islamabad is still waiting to hear from Tehran on when it will send a delegation for another round. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian mission in Egypt, told The Associated Press that no delegation would go to Pakistan until the U.S. lifts its blockade.

One killed in drone attack in Lebanon

In Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah broke out after the U.S. and Israel launched their initial strikes, the state-run National News Agency said a morning Israeli drone strike on the village of Jabbour killed one and wounded two others.

Israel’s military denied that it had attacked the area.

A 10-day ceasefire went into effect in Lebanon on Friday, but there have been several Israeli strikes and Hezbollah claimed its first attack on Tuesday.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. More than 2,290 people has been killed in Lebanon, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen have died in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.