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Will European regulators shape Hollywood’s bidding war?

Tommaso Valletti — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Will European regulators shape Hollywood’s bidding war?

Tommaso Valletti Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

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Article at a glance

The European Commission (EC) competition authority is scrutinising rival bids for Warner Bros. from Netflix and Paramount, an unusual scenario
Both bids raise different competition concerns
A frontrunner could emerge if one bidder gets cleared before the other
The EC prefers light-touch remedies
US politics, not Europe, is likely to decide the winner

A bidding saga across the Atlantic

Europe’s competition regulator is simultaneously reviewing competing bids by major US companies Netflix and Paramount to acquire entertainment company Warner Bros. This is unusual and strategically sensitive, given the current geopolitical climate. The bidding saga has attracted significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

Both bids raise competition concerns, but in different ways:

The Paramount deal would reduce rivalry between two major Hollywood studios.
Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. would increase market dominance in streaming across Europe

Professor Tommaso Valletti, Professor of Economics at 911��պ�� Business School and former Chief Competition Economist at the EC, questions whether the EC will act boldly, given its preference for light-touch remedies and geopolitical considerations. US politics, not Europe’s regulators, may ultimately decide the winner.

What’s at stake

Netflix agreed to buy Warner Bros.’ studios and streaming assets in a transaction valued around $82.7 billion. To challenge this, rival Paramount Skydance launched a hostile takeover bid for the entire company, including news network CNN, worth $108 billion, offering shareholders a higher per-share cash price.

The Warner Bros. board backs Netflix, but competition concerns are significant and more complex than the ones associated with Paramount’s bid.

A lack of clear precedent in the EU merger control raises a key question: how will the EC proceed?

Because all three companies operate across Europe and the Americas, the European Commission must review the market implications under its EU merger control framework. A simultaneous review could shape the race. By clearing one bidder, while subjecting the other to a longer investigation, a frontrunner could emerge.

A lack of clear precedent in EU merger control raises a key question: how will the EC proceed? Historically, the regulator tends to favour light-touch remedies, like small divestitures or access commitments, over prohibitions.

Netflix: from scale to market power

Netflix’s story of scale in Europe has shifted to revenue diversification. Netflix already shows signs of pricing power: in the UK, a standard subscription rose from £6 to £13 per month over the past decade. A deal with Warner Bros. would lead to:

Further market concentration: Netflix already holds over 50 percent of Europe’s subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market. Combining this with Warner Bros.’ studios, HBO Max and other streaming platforms would increase its dominance.
Monopolisation of streaming content: Netflix could control one of the largest content libraries and production pipelines in the world, cutting off production for cinemas and other traditional content platforms.

Netflix could address these concerns through remedies such as divesting HBO Max. Its likely defence would be that its streaming services compete with a broader digital entertainment market, including social media and video gaming. Regulators may accept this argument to some extent, although previous merger reviews have generally used a narrower, SVOD-focused market definition.

Paramount: traditional Hollywood rivalry

Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. raises more traditional competition concerns. Combining two established major Hollywood studios would:

reduce industry rivalry and lead to fewer big players in Hollywood,
increase bargaining power over distributors, advertisers and creators, and
potentially lead to fewer market players, less innovation, higher costs for consumers.

The deal would also continue the consolidation of Hollywood studios that has been ongoing for 50 years, reducing the “Big Five” studios (Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount and Sony) to four. Disney would remain number one, possibly facing stronger competition from the combined entities currently ranked number two (Warner Bros.) and number five (Paramount).

While the merger could be easier to clear overall, overlaps between the studios, for example franchises between Paramount and Warner Bros., could still raise competition concerns that may be harder to address.

Why Europe and the US may decide differently

Whether the EC’s decision will impact the deal remains uncertain. In the US, regulators face a different and more political context. Paramount’s bid would include CNN, which Netflix is not acquiring. President Trump, a vocal critic of CNN, has previously argued that the network should be sold or restructured. These dynamics may influence the outcome.

Given the current political climate, a European ban on either deal seems unlikely. While the EC can still influence the pace and outcome of the bidding war, the winner will ultimately be decided in the US.

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A rare regulatory scenario could see Brussels tilt the Netflix - Paramount battle for Warner Bros.

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Does influencer marketing really work in 2026?

Omar Merlo — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Does influencer marketing really work in 2026?

Omar Merlo Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

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Article at a glance:

Influencer marketing is worth $24 billion as an industry, but followers are becoming cynical. Authenticity is key to building and maintaining consumer trust, but it’s not a single, fixed concept. Research by the Business School’s Omar Merlo, Associate Professor of Marketing Strategy and Andreas B. Eisingerich, Professor of Marketing, explores the vital elements to convey true authenticity and how this can be harnessed by major brands. Dr Merlo shares what will make or break influencer marketing in 2026.

Globally, the influencer marketing industry is estimated to be worth $24 billion. Influencers set trends, raise brand profiles, and shape – directly or indirectly – how many of us live. With this rising impact, however, comes greater scrutiny.

Consumers are now more discerning when consuming influencer content, following some with loyalty and trust while viewing others with suspicion. So why do consumers trust some influencers and not others?

One study found that the most important factor in deciding whether or not to follow an influencer on social media is their authentic and genuinely care about their interests. At the same time, over a third of consumers think influencers misrepresent themselves and the products they promote, and almost half think most of them are fake.

Taken together, these findings suggest that there’s a gap; consumers are seeking genuine, honest influencers, but many influencers struggle to convey this authenticity. This is a problem for brands and their chief marketing officers, as well as influencers themselves.

Figure 1: What our research suggests influencers and brands should leave behind in 2025 and take forward for 2026

Stop	Start
Focusing on formal credentials	Talking about relatable experiences
Relying on big-name recognition	Interacting and engaging to build community
Hiding influencer-brand relationships	Being honest and upfront about self-interest
Forcing brand scripts and lines into content	Leading with original storytelling
Presenting an image of perfection	Admitting flaws and mistakes
Trying to hire authenticity off the shelf	Creating the conditions for true authenticity

How to be more authentic in 2026

So, what can influencers and the brands that hire them, do to move from a transactional to a transformational relationship with the clued-in consumers of 2026?

Our research, through 185 interviews with brand managers, agencies, influencers and consumers across the world, sheds light on what authenticity means and how to better reflect it:

Experience matters more than formal credentials: Our survey respondents tended to trust amateur runners, for example, more than Olympic athletes. Consumers connect with expertise gained through real, relatable human experience.

Engagement is a two-way street: Responding, interacting and engaging with followers is key to influencers building and maintaining a community around them. It creates a space where followers feel heard and respected.

Be honest about self-interest: Research from 911��պ�� has shown that 96% of sponsored posts are not disclosed. People know that brands pay influencers, so trying to hide it can end up making followers feel like they are being misled, and that they are an asset to be monetised. Being clear about it helps them feel valued.

Authentic voices and stories will shine through: Imposed scripts and brand lines come across as inauthentic and artificial. Original storytelling can be a unique selling point and can even be the reason followers stick around.

Flaws are welcome: Psychologically, revealing a low-impact piece of negative information – such as a mistake or misunderstanding – makes consumers less likely to look for other negatives.

Of course, this can’t be mistaken as a checklist for brands to tick off. Findings suggest that different stakeholders prioritise each dimension differently. Consumers mostly value integrity and transparency, for example, while influencers prioritise originality and expertise.

When influencers miss the mark, they risk losing the trust of their audience. To solve this, brands need to appreciate that authenticity is not an individual trait that influencers do or do not possess – rather, it’s a collective outcome that forms when stakeholder priorities align. Shifting approach to find this alignment can be game-changing for brands, in a global market where authenticity matters most.

The era of renting credibility through one-off posts from influencers is over. Brands that treat influencers as partners rather than media channels and consumers as communities rather than impressions, will earn the most credibility. Those that don’t will simply add to the noise. In 2026, influencer marketing will work only when the conditions needed for true authenticity are prioritised.

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Authentic future: the shape of influencer marketing in 2026

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How to preserve academic credibility when engaging with social media: PhD student Prashant Gang co-authors article for Times Higher Education Campus

Evie Burrows-Taylor — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 08:35:43 +0000

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Social media anxiety: what doctors can do to help

Ailin Anto — Wed, 15 May 2024 11:20:49 +0000

Social media anxiety: what doctors can do to help

Ailin Anto Wed, 15/05/2024 - 11:20

16 May 2024

An interdisciplinary team from 911��պ�� has developed a framework that addresses how primary healthcare can play a key role in solving social media-related anxiety.

In 2023, the attorneys general of 33 different US states took legal action against Meta, alleging that use of the company’s Instagram platform was associated with depression and anxiety among young people. The lawsuit highlighted growing awareness of the link between social media use and anxiety, which the World Health Organisation identifies as the most common type of mental disorder worldwide.

Anxiety tends to be managed in primary care settings, which in the UK means that general practitioners (GPs) have a key role to play in addressing it. However, 40 per cent of GPs in the NHS are aged over 50, making them much less likely to be regular users of social media or have an awareness of its relationship with anxiety, particularly for young people. The vast majority of Instagram and TikTok users, for example, are aged under 34.

In order to analyse this further, our research – the first study to use empirical data for this purpose – explores GP perceptions of social media’s impact on anxiety, and looks at how primary care can change to better address it. This is particularly important given that National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines do not currently even identify social media as a potential cause of anxiety.

Improving patient outcomes

Our study (conducted jointly by 911��պ�� medical students and the Business School) aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to addressing the impact of social media in primary care, in order to improve the ability of GPs to support and understand patients and, ultimately, to improve patient outcomes. We spoke to GPs about areas including their views on social media and wellbeing, how comfortable they were discussing social media with patients, and what techniques and knowledge they would find useful in supporting patients.

GPs also highlighted that they need appropriate referral options

One of the main barriers identified by GPs was a general lack of awareness of social media’s impact on anxiety. Respondents primarily put this down to the aforementioned age gap between GPs and young adults, which also makes it difficult for them to understand the context of social media-related anxiety issues. Others noted that they received no education on the topic as part of their continuing professional development (CPD).

GPs also acknowledged that many of them have a cautious attitude towards asking young adults about their social media habits, and were concerned that doing so might be seen by patients as intrusive or judgemental. On top of this, respondents highlighted that they simply lacked time to address social media during mental health consultations, due to existing pressures related to both capacity and funding.

Providing effective care pathways

Alongside identifying these barriers, GPs also expressed a willingness to better address social media’s impact on anxiety. They felt that informal strategies such as discussion frameworks, alongside mandatory training from a trusted organisation (e.g. as part of their CPD requirements), would be useful – particularly if this was extended to other primary care professionals too.

One of the main barriers identified by GPs was a general lack of awareness of social media’s impact on anxiety

GPs also highlighted that they need appropriate referral options – solutions for young people experiencing anxiety related to social media. Community support groups could play an important role here, helping to provide alternative care pathways while also reducing the burden on existing services. This could fit in as part of the wider social prescribing trend that sees primary care link with community and local authority provision.

In order to encourage young adults to seek support from their GPs, respondents proposed having dedicated resources, such as leaflets and self-assessment questionnaires available online and at practices. This could help empower young people to bring up social media-related anxiety in consultations, giving them the language they need and the confidence that their GP will understand the issue.

Building understanding between doctors and patients

With these findings in mind, we developed a framework to help address anxiety related to social media. This is based on four questions for primary care practitioners to explore with patients:

Do you feel as though your social media usage needs to change?
Does social media ever make you feel anxious?
How do you feel when you look at content posted by others?
What makes you use social media?

This can serve as a first step towards building understanding among GPs and normalising discussions in primary care settings for patients – key starting points for the facilitators discussed above. Progress on these is important, as solutions to addressing anxiety caused by social media could also make a difference in preventing other issues, including depression, self-harm and suicide, which are similarly linked to use of social media.

With this in mind, GPs have a vital role to play as a first port of call in addressing mental health issues related to social media. Learning from more informed interactions between GPs and young adults in this space could also be valuable for psychiatrists, university mental health teams, social media companies and policymakers. Ultimately, this can move us closer to a future where safe, aware social media use is the norm, with problems identified and supported at an early stage.

This article draws on findings from "Exploring the facilitators and barriers to addressing social media’s impact on anxiety within primary care: a qualitative study", by 911��պ��'s Ailin Anto, Rafey Omar Asif, Arunima Basu, Dylan Kanapathipillai, Haadi Salam, Rania Selim, Jahed Zaman and Andreas Eisingerich.

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Do social media-led brand boycotts work?

Political consumerism is on the rise and brands are often expected to take a stand on hot button issues. So, how should brand owners respond when the threat of boycott looms large?

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"Ratings leaks are quite common": Reuters speaks to Professor Alex Michaelides about Moody's China downgrade speculation

Evie Burrows-Taylor — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:01:57 +0000

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Listen: Dr Xinrong Zhu appears on BBC Radio 4 to discuss her research on boycotts and buycotts

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BBC Radio 4 interviews Dr Xinrong Zhu on boycotts and how they impact businesses and consumers

Evie Burrows-Taylor — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:07:45 +0000

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Surviving public outcry: How to keep your customers when things turn ugly

Omar Merlo — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:56:38 +0000

Surviving public outcry: How to keep your customers when things turn ugly

Omar Merlo Mon, 27/03/2023 - 08:56

27 March 2023

Discover the immunity metric, a new tool that measures and boosts customer loyalty and resistance to negative information. Learn how it can help you protect your brand reputation and win over your customers for life

When David Dao was dragged, screaming, from his seat on a United Airlines flight in 2017 because the flight was overbooked, footage of the incident taken by other passengers went viral. It caused widespread condemnation, hit the brand's share price where it hurt, and forced United into a costly financial settlement with Dao less than three weeks later.

Social media can now do untold damage to a brand in minutes, testing the most ardent consumer loyalty and rendering brand commitment, brand love and self-brand connection worthless. Surprisingly, it is often the customers with the strongest relationship to a brand who exhibit the most extreme negative reactions.

But what if a company could increase the resilience of brand loyalty against negative press by building a level of immunity among its core customers? And what if this could be achieved in a safe way that both measures and stimulates customer immunity at the same time?

Building immunity with core customers

This "immunity theory", with immunity referring to a customer's resistance to changing their perception of a brand – and their future behaviour towards it – when confronted with a negative scenario, forms the basis of our research.

By asking loyal customers to imagine a hypothetical and unfavourable story, we measure how this would affect their connection with the brand in the future and arrive at an immunity score. This exercise in negativity encourages consumers to consider a wider repertoire of information in their relationship with the brand, without the adverse effect of a real-world incident.

The cognitive dissonance created by the negative story taps into beliefs that reinforce a consumer's initial stance towards the brand and, once activated, these beliefs remain more readily available for information processing in the future. The combined effect creates a level of brand protection or immunity.

It is often the customers with the strongest relationship with a brand who exhibit the most extreme negative reaction

Having created and refined our immunity tool with a range of managers and consumers, we used studies of Amazon and Nike consumers to test our theory. In a separate study with Facebook users, we had the opportunity to put our theory to the test: Facebook posted full-page adverts in key US national papers attacking Apple, claiming the company's mobile software changes around targeted advertising were bad for small businesses, to which Apple responded by blaming Facebook's "disregard for user privacy". The debacle resulted in a lot of negative publicity for Facebook, allowing us to test the impact on our own groups in a real scenario; the results mirrored the data from our first two studies.

Finally, interviews with managers have provided feedback on the practicality and usefulness of the immunity tool; measuring the strength of customer-brand relationships is a key managerial issue since it can help brands achieve sustainable growth.

Protecting brand love

The CEO of a logistics firm that uses the immunity metric told us: "I believe immunity is a true test of the strength of the relationship. We get deeper insights with this metric, which helps us invest in our client relationships more effectively.”

In terms of the impact on future behaviour, immunity is clearly a branding game changer. Feedback from senior managers, some of whom who have been using the tool for more than 12 months, confirms its value.

One manager told us: "Measuring sentiment is great but being able to vaccinate against future negative information is very attractive. I just witnessed the power of the vaccination effect first hand: a disgruntled former customer recently attacked us on a popular review site. It’s not the first time this has happened but the difference is this time it seemed to have virtually no impact on our other customers, with several of them actually going out of their way to express support for us, whether online or directly to me. This is unlike anything I’ve seen in the past and I don’t think it’s just coincidental.

“It’s not enough to have a great product or a sound recovery strategy. We really need to insulate ourselves from future negative information proactively.”

Our research remains exploratory in nature, but it's clear that brand love is increasingly hard to protect when fire-fighting negative publicity. Our immunity metric has the dual benefit of measuring customer immunity, which we find to be a strong predictor of future customer behaviour, while also actively stimulating it and providing some protection in the future.

This article draws on findings from "Immunizing Customers Against Negative Brand-Related Information" by Omar Merlo (911��պ�� London), Andreas B. Eisingerich (911��պ�� London) and Wayne D. Hoyer (University of Texas at Austin).

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5 ways to achieve brand admiration – and why it matters more than ever

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"Twitter too small to trouble EU’s antitrust cops": Bloomberg interviews Professor Tommaso Valletti

Evie Burrows-Taylor — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 11:06:09 +0000

"Twitter too small to trouble EU’s antitrust cops": Bloomberg interviews Professor Tommaso Valletti Evie Burrows-Taylor Tue, 03/01/2023 - 11:06

19 December 2022

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Will European regulators shape Hollywood’s bidding war?

Will European regulators shape Hollywood’s bidding war?

More blogs

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

Article at a glance

The European Commission (EC) competition authority is scrutinising rival bids for Warner Bros. from Netflix and Paramount, an unusual scenario

Both bids raise different competition concerns

A frontrunner could emerge if one bidder gets cleared before the other

The EC prefers light-touch remedies

US politics, not Europe, is likely to decide the winner

A bidding saga across the Atlantic

What’s at stake

Netflix: from scale to market power

Paramount: traditional Hollywood rivalry

Why Europe and the US may decide differently

Subscribe to our newsletter featuring faculty-led insights

Share

A rare regulatory scenario could see Brussels tilt the Netflix - Paramount battle for Warner Bros.

Does influencer marketing really work in 2026?

Does influencer marketing really work in 2026?

More blogs

Science’s biggest AI challenge isn’t discovery – it’s proof

How to survive as an entrepreneur: insights from Steve Blank

What business leaders can learn from the erosion of democracy

Article at a glance:

Figure 1: What our research suggests influencers and brands should leave behind in 2025 and take forward for 2026

How to be more authentic in 2026

Explore more

Share

Authentic future: the shape of influencer marketing in 2026

How to preserve academic credibility when engaging with social media: PhD student Prashant Gang co-authors article for Times Higher Education Campus

Share

Social media anxiety: what doctors can do to help

An interdisciplinary team from 911���պ��� has developed a framework that addresses how primary healthcare can play a key role in solving social media-related anxiety.

Improving patient outcomes

Providing effective care pathways

Building understanding between doctors and patients

Monthly newsletter

Do social media-led brand boycotts work?

"Ratings leaks are quite common": Reuters speaks to Professor Alex Michaelides about Moody's China downgrade speculation

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Listen: Dr Xinrong Zhu appears on BBC Radio 4 to discuss her research on boycotts and buycotts

Share

David Shrier speaks to WIRED about Elon Musk’s efforts to rebrand Twitter as X.com

Share

BBC Radio 4 interviews Dr Xinrong Zhu on boycotts and how they impact businesses and consumers

Share

Surviving public outcry: How to keep your customers when things turn ugly

Discover the immunity metric, a new tool that measures and boosts customer loyalty and resistance to negative information. Learn how it can help you protect your brand reputation and win over your customers for life

Building immunity with core customers

Protecting brand love

Monthly newsletter

5 ways to achieve brand admiration – and why it matters more than ever

"Twitter too small to trouble EU’s antitrust cops": Bloomberg interviews Professor Tommaso Valletti

Share

An interdisciplinary team from 911��պ�� has developed a framework that addresses how primary healthcare can play a key role in solving social media-related anxiety.