Former Disney exec Kevin Mayer, who oversaw his former employer’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox, has shared his thoughts on the Paramount-Warner Bros merger.

The pragmatic exec, who has been co-CEO of Blackstone-backed media company Candle Media since 2021, told a panel at the Zurich Summit this weekend that consolidation in the media and entertainment sector was inevitable in a period of declining revenues.

“If we’re going to be intellectually honest about answering this question, you have to also ask yourself, what would happen if the merger didn’t happen,” he said in a response to a question on the merger.

Mayer said the film industry was in a phase of decline with “fewer and fewer” great financial outcomes, and that the status quo of a number of independent studios working with declining revenues no longer made financial sense.

“Their ability to finance, to distribute and to market product is going to start to deteriorate very substantially. It already has, frankly. If we keep the standalone, the status quo, you’re going to have a larger number of very weak companies unable to do much in the future. That’s the future you’ve got to measure this consolidation against, in my opinion, not against some fanciful future where everything is as good as it was five, 10 years ago”.

Mayer said he expected Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to keep his promises around producing 30 movies a year for at least five years after sealing of the deal.

“I did this once. I negotiated Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox, and I was responsible for integrating those two companies,” he said.

“David Ellison made some promises. I expect he’ll keep them. We have public promises that are that explicit… are very hard to reverse yourselves. I think for a period of time… for five years, he’ll do what he says. He’ll make the movies and he’ll release them theatrically, he’ll do it all.”

Mayer said he felt it was likely that Warner Bros. would continue to operate as a separate entity, based on his own experiences at Disney.

The biggest rub in the deal, he suggested, would be job losses in the industry, even if believed consolidation has “necessary”.

“When you hear these promises of $6 billion in synergies, that’s a euphemism for a lot of layoffs… That’s an extremely difficult thing, obviously, and that’s what I think this merger portends.”