Paramount Settlement Approved: A Judge Entered the 12-State Consent Decree on September 30, and the Warner Bros. Deal Closed October 6 — Still No Money and No Claim Form for Paramount+ or HBO Max Subscribers

No. The Paramount settlement that a federal judge approved on September 30, 2026 is a consent decree between the company and 12 state attorneys general, not a class action. It pays nothing to Paramount+, HBO Max or cable subscribers, and there is no claim form. The decree states that “no person or entity is intended to be a third-party beneficiary of any provision of this Consent Decree for any reason.”

What changed since our September 30 report on the proposed deal: on the same day, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted the joint motion to enter the decree (Dkt. 243), found it “a fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms alleged in the Complaint, and does not violate the law or public policy,” and ruled: “The Court DISSOLVES the parties’ stipulation and the Court’s Order Not to Close, Dkt. No. 170, effective upon entry of this Order.” She signed the decree itself as Document 267 the same day.

Six days later, on October 6, 2026, the company announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission “the completion of its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.” The combined company is named Skydance and trades on the New York Stock Exchange as SKYD. Its brands include “HBO and HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto TV, CBS, CNN.”

For subscribers: nothing in the decree sets, freezes or refunds streaming prices; its cable-negotiation rule “does not apply to other Combined Entity offerings (e.g., premium cable channels, streaming services, or broadcast).” Skydance said its streaming products “will unify into a single service over time”; it gave no date and no prices in that announcement.

The money in the decree goes to programs, funds and the states, not to individuals. Because the deal closed in 2026, the decree’s five Commitment Years are 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030 and 2031, and the decree runs through December 31, 2031. Deadlines counted from the October 6 closing are our arithmetic:

• Independent Film Fund: to be formed “within thirty (30) days of Closing” — by about November 5, 2026 — with $5 million a year.
• Monitoring Trustee: to be selected jointly with a committee of states “within ninety (90) days of the Closing” — by about January 4, 2027; the company pays its costs.
• News Editorial Independence Board for CBS News and CNN: due “within one hundred eighty (180) days following Closing” — by about April 4, 2027. The judge rejected the amici’s argument that the board violates the First Amendment, writing that the decree “governs the News Editorial Independence Board’s creation and structure, not its speech.”
• Workforce and arts: $9.5 million a year for five years for workforce training and career programs in film and TV communities and for film programs and community arts groups.
• Films in theaters: at least 30 films a year (20 of them wide releases on 2,000 or more screens) in 2027 and 2028, then 32 a year (21 wide) through 2031, including at least four independent films a year. Counted films must stay in theaters for at least 45 days and off Paramount+ or any other subscription streamer for at least 90 days.
• U.S. production: at least $300 million more a year, and $1.5 billion more over the period, than the two companies spent in 2025.
• If films fall short: $30 million per missing film, split 50% to union health and retirement funds, 40% to the Motion Picture & Television Fund and 10% to a state attorneys general antitrust fund; if the shortfall is not cured, Paramount must sell Miramax within 12 months.
• The states: attorneys’ and expert fees reimbursed up to $40 million.
• Pluto TV: the free, ad-supported service, or an equivalent, must stay available at no lower service and quality level.

There is no claim deadline because there is no claim process. Any email, text or social-media post asking you to “register” for a Paramount or Warner Bros. settlement payment, pay a processing fee, or enter your Paramount+ or HBO Max login is not from the court or the states. The decree has no settlement administrator, no settlement website and no payment schedule for individuals.

One real payment did go out, but it is not a settlement: under the merger agreement, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders “received an amount in cash equal to $31.01666668 per share,” according to the company’s October 6 announcement, and WBD stock stopped trading on Nasdaq that day. That is the purchase price for the shares, handled through the shareholder’s own brokerage account, and nobody needs to file a claim for it.

The decree does not take away anyone’s own legal rights: it says nothing in it “shall be construed to deprive any person … of any right provided by law … independent of this Consent Decree.” Enforcement belongs to the states: the decree “shall be enforceable by any Plaintiff State, acting by and through its Attorney General,” and the court keeps jurisdiction to enforce it.

The 12 states that sued are California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington. As of October 11, 2026, their lawsuit has ended in the consent decree the court entered on September 30, 2026; the states now act as its enforcers rather than as plaintiffs trying to block the deal.

Why they sued: on July 13, 2026, the states alleged that the merger “may be substantially to lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act.” The judge summarized their three claimed markets as “(1) distribution of wide-release theatrical films, (2) distribution of top-grossing theatrical films, and (3) licensing of basic cable channels to distributors.” Paramount and Warner Bros. denied that the merger violates any law, and the settlement is not an admission.

The judge acknowledged the criticism. She wrote that the decree “reflects a compromise of the claims short of full adjudication – compromise that may leave some dissatisfaction for both sides and the public,” but that hopes for it “to reach farther – to achieve more – do not rise to the level of legal violations upon which the Court can reject the parties’ negotiated resolution.” The Block the Merger coalition called the settlement a “toothless” deal, the Associated Press reported.

Paramount won the bidding. Netflix had signed a merger agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery on December 4, 2025 to buy its “streaming and studios businesses, including its film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO,” amended on January 19, 2026. According to Netflix’s quarterly report to the SEC, on February 27, 2026 Warner Bros. Discovery terminated that agreement to sign with Paramount Skydance, which “on behalf of WBD, paid a $2.8 billion termination fee owed to Netflix.” The AP valued the deal at $81 billion, or about $111 billion including debt.

Who owns Paramount+: Paramount+ belongs to Paramount, which, as the AP put it, “was bought by Skydance just last year.” Since October 6, 2026, Paramount+ and HBO Max are under one roof in the renamed company, Skydance, led by chairman and CEO David Ellison with co-CEO Ynon Kreiz.

Other lawsuits. The Writers Guild of America, which sued separately in July, also reached a settlement with Paramount in the week before the approval, the AP reported; we have not read its terms. In a private case, Faust v. Paramount Skydance Corporation, No. 4:26-cv-03790, the plaintiffs filed a second motion for a temporary restraining order on September 21, 2026, then went to the Ninth Circuit (No. 26-6423) and filed a motion for injunctive relief on October 1, 2026; Paramount responded on October 2, 2026. The entries we found show no ruling on that motion, and the merger closed on October 6, 2026. That case seeks to stop the deal and is not a settlement that pays consumers.

Changes to the decree. After the second full Commitment Year — by our count, after December 31, 2028 — the company may ask the court, “for good cause,” to modify the decree, and must show that it otherwise impairs its ability to operate and compete. Until then, any plaintiff state can go back to the same court to enforce it.

What we will watch: whether the Independent Film Fund is formed by about November 5, 2026, who is named Monitoring Trustee by about January 4, 2027, and who sits on the news board by about April 4, 2027. None of those steps creates a payment for viewers. If you are looking for settlements that do pay, our list of open class action settlements covers cases that still accept claims.