Netflix CEO Gets Roasted in Senate Over Streaming Merger and Trans Characters
KEY POINTS
- •Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos testified before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday about its plan to acquire parts of Warner Bros. Discovery.
- •The hearing addressed traditional merger concerns like consumer costs and job market shrinkage along with the company's 'woke' programming.
- •Senators questioned Netflix's inclusion of transgender characters in shows amid wider antitrust and cultural debates.
On a dramatic Tuesday, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos faced the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights while defending Netflix’s ambitious attempt to acquire a large chunk of Warner Bros. Discovery. The hearing wasn’t just your classic merger showdown filled with phrases like ‘consumer costs’ and ‘market shrinkage,’ it quickly diverted into a culture war spectacle criticizing Netflix's "woke" programming for featuring transgender characters. With Hollywood’s mightiest battling lawmakers in Washington, the septuagenarian meat grinder of politics chewed into streaming content choices alongside union concerns, all while Netflix stuffed the popcorn with billion-dollar acquisitions and social justice subplot twists.
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Netflix tried to buy Warner Bros and ended up on trial for "woke" TV content instead. Apparently billion-dollar mergers come with mandatory political Twitter fights now.
Nothing screams streamlined corporate strategy like debating whether a streaming service is too woke while merging media empires in front of the Senate.
Ted Sarandos pitching a billion-dollar deal while Senates argue about trans characters feels like watching a family BBQ go viral for all the wrong reasons.
Source: Theverge | Published: 2/4/2026 | Author: Lauren Feiner
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