Netflix’s plan to buy Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming business is raising questions about how the transaction could reshape competition across the entertainment industry, with some analysts warning of complications tied to competing bidders and broader sector consolidation.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Brian Belski, CEO and CIO at Humilis Investment Strategies, who says the deal could become “messy,” even as markets remain resilient and institutional investors lag in performance heading into year-end.
Key Takeaways
- Belski says Netflix’s move to buy Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming assets could become “messy,” particularly with Paramount also seeking the content.
- He argues the deal reflects a decade-long trend in communication services driven by cash, content and consolidation.
- Belski says media companies continue to struggle to monetize streaming, leaving Netflix, Apple and Disney as rare standouts.
- He notes AI and tech stocks remain resilient despite bubble warnings, with institutional investors underperforming after missing key names.
- Belski expects short-term market strength into year-end as portfolios rebalance and lagging funds attempt to catch up.
Read the full transcript below:
ANDREW: Showbiz is being shaken up by that mega-deal in which Netflix is buying Warner’s streaming and movie studio business. Our guest says this deal could get a bit messy. We’re joined by Brian Belski, CEO and chief investment officer at Humilis Investment Strategies. Brian, thanks very much indeed for joining us. Happy Friday. Everybody knows about movies and streaming, and so the regulators may have an objection to Netflix getting so much power. Do you think?
BRIAN: There might be. Good morning, Canada. There might be. You know, Paramount wanted this content for a number of different reasons, so there could be some issues there. I would also think, too, that this follows through with what our broader theme for the communication services sector has been for 10 years, which is the three C’s — cash, content and consolidation. We think there’s more coming. We think this is all about buying the brand of Warner Bros., and really their great HBO brand and some of their other series, whether or not that’s Batman and those types of things. And maybe Netflix can monetize it a little bit better than Warner Bros. has. Remember, this company spun off from AT&T, so I think there’s going to be probably some noise around this. Paramount wanted the whole thing, and so there could be some disruption. But at the end of the day, we’re happy because we own Warner Bros., and we also own Netflix. But I think the Netflix part of it — I don’t care if the stock is down today. We don’t manage money for a day. We think, from a longer-term perspective, the trend of accumulating this type of great content makes a lot of sense for Netflix.
ANDREW: Yes, the stock is dipping a bit. But as you say — just one day. Maybe we could put up a five- or 10-year chart for Netflix, because they just seem to go from strength to strength. A global franchise, to put it mildly.
BRIAN: Well, you and I are probably old enough to remember the late 1970s, and I like to explain how important HBO was in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I mean, that was the channel to have. They had the content. They had movies faster. Cable was a big deal. And if you also remember, stand-up comedy really was born, in terms of the new age with respect to television, in the late ’70s and early ’80s on HBO. So now you fast-forward a couple, three decades, and Netflix is now the place for stand-up comedy. So there are some correlations that I think are very interesting.
And as you look at these other studios — Sony, Amazon, even Paramount — Comcast is probably in play in terms of part of what they’re doing. Remember, the big companies with streaming services have found it really difficult to monetize. Apple’s done a pretty good job, Netflix has done a pretty good job, Disney’s done a pretty good job. But aside from that, it’s tough sledding, and that’s why you saw the Paramount–Skydance merger. So I think there’s more coming, and on this particular buyout by Netflix, I think it could be noisy.
ANDREW: Noisy in terms of anti-monopoly concerns, Brian?
BRIAN: I don’t think it’s so much that. I think the media is making too much of President Trump and the administration with respect to the conservative ties of Paramount and Mr. Ellison and Oracle. I think that’s not — the anti-trust part of that is not a big part of it. I think there are going to be some other companies coming in. I think this could spur other merger activity. The good thing about this particular consolidation, from our lens, is we like the fact they’re using cash. We like consolidation with cash. If it was a majority stock deal, we wouldn’t like it. But we like the notion of companies being bought with a majority of cash.
ANDREW: Brian, we’re seeing more speculation that the AI business is a bubble, or at least that valuations on these stocks are overextended. And apparently some evidence is emerging that companies are having a tough time initially getting much more productivity out of AI tools.
BRIAN: I think it’s early on. I love the speculation with respect to AI. I think you need these bearish prognostications out there. I think the capex boom is just beginning, but what we’re seeing is delineation and dispersion within companies — which has been our broader theme with respect to our investment strategy for several years. So we’re seeing things in performance with respect to not only fundamentals, but price performance, spread out. And that’s very good.
So the market in AI and tech has been exceedingly resilient with respect to some of the pullback we saw in November heading into December. Part of that might be end-of-month profit taking in November. But now, if you look at the majority of institutional accounts and hedge funds, they’re massively underperforming. So I think once we start to have a settling in — which we already have here in the first week of December — we could have a very strong couple of weeks. We don’t like to make short-term calls with respect to running money or our investment strategy, but I think we could have a couple of very strong weeks heading into the Christmas season, where portfolios will be lifted higher, especially given the fact that again, many institutional accounts are underperforming.
ANDREW: Institutions have underperformed partly because they weren’t riding these big tech names higher.
BRIAN: Yes, that’s correct. They were late, or they picked the wrong tech names, and they’ve been focusing more on the negativity. They got too short and sold too soon. Again, we’re not short-term investors. We’re longer-term investors. We take 18 to 24 months minimum when we look at a company. And so we’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have great performance in our portfolios because we stick with our process and our discipline.
ANDREW: Brian, thank you very much indeed.
BRIAN: Thank you.
ANDREW: Brian Belski, CEO and chief investment officer at Humilis Investment Strategies.
—
This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Dec. 5, 2025 interview with Brian Belski are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
link