Netflix, Disney, OpenAI and the New Power Map of Media

Consolidation, AI, and creators are colliding, and the balance of power is changing fast.

Author

Shira Lazar
December 14, 2025

Hey Alpha Fam!

Every so often, the media industry hits one of those inflection points where everything feels like it shifts at once. It has definitely felt that way over the past year, and especially this past week.

Netflix moved to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets. Disney wrote a billion dollar check to OpenAI. Paramount countered Netflix with a hostile bid backed by big private equity and Middle Eastern capital. And suddenly, the future of legacy media looks nothing like the systems that defined the last half century.

The company agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and TV studio, HBO, and the HBO Max streaming service in a deal valued at around 82.7 billion dollars when debt is included, after Warner spins off its cable networks into a separate business called Discovery Global.

Reporting from The New York Times and WSJ breaks down how the structure works. Netflix would effectively inherit the Warner Bros. library, including everything from Harry Potter to Game of Thrones, and absorb HBO into its growing global empire.

Streaming and studios are no longer separate worlds. Netflix is no longer just a platform. It now operates like a full entertainment company with global reach, real tech power, and soon one of the most valuable libraries in Hollywood.

For everyone else, the middle of the market is disappearing. You either own the IP and the distribution, or you end up licensing your work to the companies that do. 

It is also worth noting that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has called the traditional theatrical model outdated. That worries many in Hollywood who are fighting to stay afloat while preserving an industry built on that foundation.

Even before the ink is dry, a California consumer class action lawsuit has already been filed, arguing that removing HBO Max as an independent competitor could violate antitrust law.

Meanwhile, Paramount launched its own rival bid, roughly $108 billion dollars, in partnership with sovereign wealth and private equity. They are pitching themselves as the more regulator friendly alternative because Netflix already dominates subscription streaming.

But if regulator friendly is meant to describe leadership by the Ellisons, who have backed President Trump, that context feels relevant. This is not just market consolidation. It is political influence entering the center of the media merger conversation.

While all of this was happening, Disney moved into a completely different arena. The company announced a sweeping partnership with OpenAI that includes:

  • A 1 billion dollar equity investment

  • Expanded licensing access so Sora can legally generate Disney owned characters and worlds

  • Deep API integrations into Disney Plus, parks and resorts, consumer experiences, and internal production workflows

If OpenAI is worth about 500 billion dollars, Disney’s 1 billion dollar investment would amount to roughly 0.2 percent of the company, give or take depending on valuation.

This is not a test run for Disney. The OpenAI partnership makes the company part of Disney’s creative engine. It will be about rebuilding entire production systems around models that can speed up animation, localization, marketing, storyboarding, world building, and anything else that normally takes teams months to complete.

Unions are already paying attention. Early reports show concerns about how AI changes compensation, consent, likeness rights, and the way existing contracts handle synthetic or AI assisted work.

Three Headlines, One Direction

If Netflix represents consolidation and Paramount represents possible political influence, then Disney represents transformation. 

These may be separate headlines, but they all point in the same direction. Power is moving toward the companies that own the strongest IP or the companies that control the AI infrastructure that will shape how that IP is created and distributed.

Made with help from ChatGPT

Legacy media is stuck between two competing worlds.

On one side, you have global platforms like Netflix, with the possibility of adding Warner and HBO, and Disney weaving OpenAI directly into its future. All of this is shaped by a mix of U.S. political power and international financial interests, a reality that is hard to ignore.

On the other side, you have everyone else. Studios, networks, production companies, and creators who now have to decide whether they scale, specialize, or position themselves as suppliers inside these new giant ecosystems. 

What This Means for Creators

Creators are entering a new era too. Distribution is consolidating, but creation is opening up. AI is lowering the barriers and speeding up the work, while audiences scatter into smaller and more connected communities.

The companies and individuals that thrive will be the ones who can move fluidly across both ends of the spectrum. Big global reach paired with intimate, fan driven and community experiences. Massive franchises that coexist with participatory storytelling. Studio level output supported by creator level agility, or even choosing to own one side of that spectrum entirely.

This is the hybrid era.

My Hot Take: The winners will be the people and companies who stop pretending this is a temporary shift and start building for the world that is arriving faster than anyone expected.

This is not the future sneaking up on us. It is already here. The people who learn to work with it instead of against it are going to define the next era of storytelling.

Shira Lazar

Other headlines to check out:

AI

Creator Economy

Web3 

🎧 New Episode of The AI Download: Six AI Tools You Need To Be Successful In 2026 with Paige Piskin

In this episode of The AI Download, I sat down with my friend and longtime AI power user Paige Piskin to cut through the noise and map out the six categories of AI tools you actually need heading into 2026.

Paige has been using tools like Sora, Suno, Midjourney, Eleven Labs, Lovable, and Google’s Build Studio long before they went mainstream, turning them into real commercial workflows for clients, not just demos.

Together, we break down what is real, what is ready for professional work, and how creators, marketers, and media teams can combine search, no code app builders, image, audio, video, and repurposing tools without losing the taste and human judgment that make the work matter.

If you want a shortcut to leveling up your AI stack instead of testing hundreds of tools yourself, this episode is your guide.

🎙️ Listen now and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts:

Gentle Reminder 🙏

Live in your light, so that others can see the light in themselves too.

Want to advertise with me and sponsor #TheAlpha?
Reply to this email and lets chat :)

Remember, I'm Bullish on you! With gratitude and Happy Hannukah,