A TV and movie disaster can be devastating to what you watch and what you know. Take action now to stop that | Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong

Although it hasn’t made headlines in the UK, you should know what’s on offer The combination of Paramount-Warner Bros. It threatens to wreak havoc on the British people. As actors and celebrities who have used our art in Britain – working with British crews, on British stages and sets – we have a responsibility to the people who support, enjoy and use the art we create.

The UK is being threatened by media consolidation that will destroy our workers, our culture and society as a whole – but we can stop it. We are encouraged by Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, who recently sent letters to Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discoveryas well as the word the parliamentindicating that he “wanted to intervene” in Paramount’s Taking $110bn and Warner Bros.

He is right to investigate this huge threat to the public interest in the UK. And he won’t do it alone. This month, 12 US states, led by California, He was arrested in federal court banning the merger, warning that it would raise prices, limit the number of films produced and lower the quality of what audiences see. And they just won a major victory: On Friday, Paramount approved it delaying integration until the trial, which could be months. These countries took action even after the Washington Department of Justice – though filing reports working staff – encouraged cooperation.

Their case proves the danger; it cannot, however, perform UK duties for it. US courts deal with antitrust in US markets. EU, which last week helped to integratehe also makes his own decisions. The interests of the UK public, our public service broadcasting, our news coverage, the range of voices heard by the British public, can be protected here, by our secretary of state and the Competition and Markets Authority.

This fight against integration now runs on two fronts, and Nandy commands one of them. If his department decides to intervene, it could prove one of the most important decisions any culture secretary has made for UK film, television and media in a generation.

That is why. We have spent our lives working in this industry. We know what it’s like from the inside: the sound stages in Leavesden, the crew who leave the production, the editors and camera operators and the costume designers whose names go back in the credits at the end of the film. These are our dear friends and colleagues, who create the shows we all love, produce stories that educate people and capture the sporting events we enjoy together. UK film and television isn’t just about drawing on your screen; it is the lifeblood of thousands of workers and families, whose jobs support the local economy. Companies help more than 180,000 jobsproduced £6.8bn in investment Last year alone I added approx £12bn a year benefit to our economy. It’s one of the things the UK still does best, and a cultural heritage we need to protect.

We’ve seen, with growing awareness, what inclusion does to the breadth and depth of the work we produce: taking independent films to Sundance’s leading independent film festival. it fell by half between 2019 and 2025. Award-winning documentaries – films themselves won the Oscars and above the festival judges – to be He had trouble finding distribution because they touched on issues that the few remaining consumers found difficult. Any combination of these types reduces the way news can reach an audience.

This is what makes the Paramount-WBD merger so dangerous. That is why the intervention of Nandy and his department is so important.

Paramount wants to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery in one of the biggest acquisitions ever attempted, putting the company together with about $84bn in debt. To do the job, management has promised to invest about $6bn in “synergiesIn plain English, this means layoffs, production cancellations, fewer movies ordered and fewer threats made.

We’ve seen this before. When Discovery merged with WarnerMedia in 2022, it kept the last films and they have cut thousands of jobs; when Skydance merged with Paramount last year, it they evacuated about 2,000 people. Now the same management is making the same promise, and UK workers, producers, talent and audiences will pay when it comes.

But work is often a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority, his comment must end with a full investigation of phase 2. The work of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport goes further: to determine whether the merger is in the public interest. Of course not. In his speech to British MPsNandy mentioned the importance of having a sufficient number of opinions on the media and a sufficient number of people who control the media business. They also analyzed the potential impact of advertising games, content homogenisation and children’s television. The Enterprise Act it protects what we should all care about: who decides what we watch, and what we know.

Think of the magnitude of what this one company can do. Channel 5, one of our five public service broadcasterswhich broadcasts the evening news to the public without a subscription fee. CNN International, which Ofcom’s 2018 survey found UK viewers rated it the highest of any TV news source for quality, accuracy, reliability and impartiality. CNN and CBS archives – among the world’s most important news organizations, are more than 4.25m videos, pictures and audio media spanning almost half a century of history. If a business owner controls access to both, they control the content of our history.

A single owner controlling these many issues, and the truth, puts people at risk in ways that no ordinary merger does. When different owners have separate newsrooms, a story that one finds difficult can reach people through another. Fold those newsrooms into one company, and one room’s business concerns — or political debts — determine what millions of people see and never learn.

And we know something about the intentions of the owners. Paramount executives reportedly told Donald Trump they would make “a big change” to CNN if the deal goes through.” When the world’s most trusted television buyer promises an editorial to a politician, Britain’s secretary of state has the right to ask questions before the ink is dry.

Nandy has been careful to note that no final decision has been taken. Good. It is important to take the time to fix this. But the case for public intervention, where Ofcom monitors the population and reports, is overwhelming.

Actors are often told to stay out of legal disputes. We understand genetics. But we have spent our lives on enough sets in the UK, we work with enough UK workers to see the best work from the UK and to find a buyer to know that this is not a conflict for someone else. It’s ours. Nandy has opened the door to intervene. He they should walk in it, for everyone who makes UK TV and film – and everyone who watches it. If they don’t, we will be left powerless to protect our industry and our culture from this deal. We must not push aside the interests of the people; We must stand up and stop this merger.