Politics at center stage in bid for Warner Bros.

[Paramount, from Af] executives to launch a multipronged strategy to scuttle the Netflix deal.

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PARAMOUNT, led by David Ellison, top, says the Netflix deal is too dicey. Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos has sought to downplay the latest controversy.

(ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times PATRICK T. FALLON AFP/Getty Images)

Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos sought to downplay the latest controversy, saying during a BBC interview Monday: “This is a business deal, it’s not a political deal.”

But Paramount, which declined to comment for this article, has not been shy about playing its political cards.

The company, overseen by Larry Ellison’s son, David, is trying to convince Justice Department regulators and Warner Bros. shareholders that the Netflix deal is too dicey and that they should instead side with Paramount, said sources who were not authorized to comment publicly.

Paramount has attempted numerous maneuvers to gain the upper hand.

“This deal was never going to be decided on the merits of the offer or rigid antitrust considerations,” said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “This was a classic Trump administration deal where proximity to the president counts a lot more than financial terms.”

Trump’s Saturday night outburst came after Rice, during a podcast interview last week, said that “it is not going to end well” for corporations, media outlets and law firms that “bent the knee” to Trump should Democrats regain control in Washington.

The comments of Rice, a Netflix director for eight years, came as Paramount-owned CBS was involved in a headline-grabbing dust-up with late-night talk-show host Stephen Colbert over a threat by Trump's Federal Communications Commission chair to modify a rule requiring that broadcasters give political candidates equal time. Colbert has accused his company of kowtowing to Trump, which CBS has denied.