Alan Cumming Joins Fight Against WarnerMount Merger, Citing Threats to UK Filmmakers

The coalition known as Block the Merger, supported by Alan Cumming, has presented a case to the UK’s Culture Secretary, urging her to halt the massive merger between Paramount and Warner.

Representatives from four organizations within the coalition have supplied Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy with both market data and direct accounts from industry professionals as she contemplates stepping in to block the merger.

With the UK parliament currently on its summer break, Nandy, who has expressed her inclination to intervene, will not announce her decision until September 1 at the earliest. In the meantime, the proposed $110 billion merger faces significant roadblocks in the U.S. as 12 states have initiated lawsuits against it.

The groups opposing the merger, including the Archival Producers Alliance, the International Documentary Association, the UK’s Documentary Film Council, and the Democracy Defenders Fund, argue that the merger would make WarnerMount the third-largest linear broadcaster in the UK, not even considering the potential rapid expansion of HBO Max.

They also highlighted concerns that the merger would bring the CNN and CBS News archives, two of America’s most significant broadcast news collections, under one roof for the first time, which they believe could limit UK documentary filmmakers’ ability to tell a diverse range of stories.

“As the coalition has emphasized, this merger is far from a settled matter, and filmmakers, journalists, archive producers, unions, and consumer advocates from both sides of the Atlantic remain committed to ensuring it does not proceed,” stated the groups.

News of this opposition follows a video from Alan Cumming, host of The Traitors, endorsing the Block the Merger campaign in which he criticized WarnerMount as being controlled by a giant conglomerate with ties to figures like Donald Trump and various autocrats and oligarchs.

Shortly after, he co-wrote an opinion piece with Benedict Cumberbatch, calling the merger a “disaster.”

The opposition in the UK has been strong as both American conglomerates involved have extensive influences, including owning the linear network 5 (formerly Channel 5) and several production companies. Meanwhile, the European Union approved the merger just last week.