Judge Sets Paramount-Warner Bros. Antitrust Trial for March 2027

The judge hearing the antitrust case seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger has issued a preliminary scheduling order, with a trial set to start in March 2027 — considerably later than Paramount was hoping for. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin on Tuesday issued a ruling that said the trial will run a total of 12 court days, beginning Tuesday, March 2, 2027, and ending March 19. In her order, she said a final pretrial conference will be held Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2027. The judge said the parties must submit a joint case management statement by no later than noon on Aug. 13, 2026, for an initial case management conference on Aug. 19. In a July 31 filing, Paramount had asked the judge to schedule its upcoming antitrust trial in November, while the coalition of 12 state attorneys general suing to stop the deal and the Writers Guild of America asked for a date in April 2027. Popular on Variety Variety has reached out to Paramount Skydance for comment. The scheduling matters for Paramount — which will begin paying Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a “ticking fee” of $7 million per day starting Oct. 1 until the deal is complete. The trial is scheduled to start roughly five months after that, which means Paramount will be on the hook to pay about $1 billion to WBD shareholders. In its filing last Friday, Paramount argued that a delay “prejudices the creative industry, the individuals who work within it, and the consumers who benefit from it.” The 12-state coalition, including California and New York, filed suit on July 13, alleging that the $111 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. will unlawfully reduce competition in the basic cable and theatrical distribution markets. The WGA filed a separate suit the next day, arguing that it will also harm the marketplace for writers. Paramount has argued that the deal will help consumers by providing a more robust competitor to streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime.