By Dawn Chmielewski and Paul Sandle
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, July 30 (Reuters) - A group of film producers has urged the British culture minister to intervene in the proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery and protect access to historical news footage used by documentary makers.
The appeal follows concerns raised by Culture Minister Lisa Nandy that the deal could reduce media plurality. The merger would place the vast CNN and CBS News archives under common ownership for the first
time, according to the producers.
In a letter sent this week to the UK government, the Archival Producers Alliance, which represents more than 650 specialists in the U.S., the UK and elsewhere who find and license such material, said the deal would combine two of the world's most significant news collections.
Warner Bros.' CNN archive holds more than 4 million assets that span 45 years of global conflicts, elections and political events.
The proposed deal would bring it under the control of Paramount, which also owns the CBS News archive, home to 85 years of broadcast news footage and unaired materials, such as outtakes or additional material known as B-roll.
A Paramount spokesperson declined to comment.
DOCUMENTARY PRODUCERS' LIFEBLOOD
The vast library is the lifeblood of documentary film, but access is granted at the sole discretion of the archive's owner.
"Consolidating the CNN and CBS archives under a single corporate owner places the world's two largest privately held broadcast news collections under unified ownership for the first time," the British government said in letters to the companies on June 30.
The film archivists say there are direct consequences for Britain. Documentary producers can access UK-focused archives like the BBC's, but they routinely license American news footage to tell stories about war, elections, civil rights and international affairs.
"If the combined entity declines to license material because it dislikes a film's framing, its politics, or its portrayal of the company's own talent, UK producers could find it close to impossible to access that material. And in many cases no substitute footage may exist," the producers note.
The group urged Nandy to launch a full investigation, and if necessary, impose conditions to ensure continued access to and preservation of the archives.
Nandy must decide whether to issue a formal intervention notice while a separate antitrust initial review is ongoing under the Enterprise Act 2002. That review will conclude by August 7.
The producers cited the case of a filmmaker who was denied access to wartime footage he had previously used because the U.S. was at war and it showed soldiers "in a bad light."
It declined to disclose the name of the filmmaker.
"If a news organization refuses to release footage, there is often no other way to get it," the group wrote. "CNN and CBS offer singular perspectives of the past, present and future news; consolidating them will allow one owner to control access to this irreplaceable footage."
Alongside archives, Nandy has also raised concerns about the deal's impact on international news, children's television and streaming services.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
