The FCC needs to conduct a “thorough investigation” into foreign investors supporting Paramount Skydance’s proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, seven Democratic senators said in a letter to Chairman Brendan Kerr.
Senators led by Sen. Cory Booker (D.N.J.) expressed “deep concern” that sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Chinese gaming and internet giant Tencent are “funding billions of dollars in mergers.” The deal gives Paramount Skydance ownership of WBD assets, including CNN, HBO Max and Warner Bros.’ film and television studios.
“The array of foreign investments from China and the Gulf States have complex and sometimes competitive relationships with the United States and require rigorous, not perfunctory, scrutiny,” the senators wrote.
Representatives for the FCC and Paramount Skydance did not respond to requests for comment.
The financing for Paramount Skydance’s WBD deal includes funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). Paramount’s offer for WBD as of Dec. 1 included a total of $24 billion from the Middle East fund, according to SEC filings. Since then, the company has not disclosed how much the three funds contributed to its successful bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, which was accepted by WBD’s board last month after Netflix chose not to compete with its offer of $31 per share.
Paramount announced in December that Tencent, which contributed $1 billion to the Paramount Skydance bid, would no longer be a financing partner due to WBD board concerns about foreign ownership. However, earlier this month, Tencent rejoined as an investor in the deal with new funding, Bloomberg reported.
Paramount Skydance claimed in an SEC filing that three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds “have agreed to waive any governance rights, including board representation, in connection with non-voting equity investments.” Paramount said this meant the transaction was “not within the jurisdiction of CFIUS,” referring to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an agency of the U.S. government led by the Treasury Department, which reviews foreign investments in U.S. companies for potential national security risks.
Mr. Booker, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, was joined in the FCC’s letter to Mr. Carr by six other U.S. senators: Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York; Leaders Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Maisie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Sheldon Whitehouse (D.R.I.), and Elizabeth Warren. (Massachusetts Democratic Party).
Earlier this month, Warren and Blumenthal criticized the Trump administration’s Treasury Department for not initiating a CFIUS national security review of Paramount Skydance’s WBD deal.
In a March 23 letter, seven senators said they had “grave concerns” about Tencent’s stake in the parent company of CBS News and CNN. The senators said the company’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, combined with Chinese government laws that require domestic technology companies to cooperate with national intelligence agencies when necessary, “create multiple avenues for foreign influence over American journalists and content.”
Paramount’s assertion that foreign investors do not have governing rights “requires careful independent verification,” the senators wrote. But “even with non-governmental partners, their large investments create significant opportunities for soft power, giving them influence over CNN’s editorial decisions and business priorities.”
The letter continued, “The concerns extend beyond national borders. CNN International is distributed in more than 200 countries and territories, and CNN New Source is the world’s most widely trusted news service, partnering with more than 1,000 national and international news organizations around the world. The potential for foreign government influence over American journalism at home and abroad is not hypothetical. It is structural and unchecked.”
The senators concluded, “The FCC’s foreign ownership review process exists for this moment. America’s broadcast infrastructure is not just a commercial asset; it is a critical component of our nation’s information environment. The Communications Act imposes a responsibility on the Commission to protect the public interest, and we urge the Commission to honor that responsibility.”
The senator’s letter can be viewed at this link.
The senators are asking the FCC to conduct a full and independent Section 310(b) review of all foreign ownership in the Paramount-WBD deal, including Tencent and all Gulf sovereign wealth funds, before approval is granted. The politicians also called for the FCC to deny a confidentiality request to Paramount and require it to “publicly submit all documents documenting the foreign investment commitments in this transaction, including equity commitment letters, subscription agreements, side letters, and commercial agreements between foreign investors and the combined entity.”
According to the senators’ letter, the FCC should also issue a Freedom of Information request and public comment specifically focused on the foreign investment component of the deal. Additionally, the FCC will need to coordinate with CFIUS, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and “relevant intelligence agencies before concluding that any element of the financing is free of risk.”
The senators also called on the FCC to “reject the premise that a transaction of this size involving CBS’s broadcast license, significant news operations including CNN, and major content distribution infrastructure warrants minimal FCC involvement.”
In their letter, the senators cited Carr’s remarks at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on March 3, 2026, where he called Paramount Skydance’s WBD proposal “cleaner” than Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. and predicted it would be approved “much faster.” Additionally, Kerr said the FCC’s role in the approval process will be “minimal” and will ensure only a “very quick, almost pro forma review” of the foreign investment component.
“These statements demonstrate that the Commission has no intention of conducting a meaningful investigation into the merger, which will only deepen our concerns as the full extent of foreign investment in this transaction becomes clear,” the Democratic senators wrote.
