Plot twist from Paramount as Netflix seeks to upset the Hollywood previous order: RUTH SUNDERLAND

Paramount Skydance’s move to gatecrash Netflix’s takeover of Warner Bros Discovery has dramatically raised the stakes – and opened up the possibility of two starkly different futures for Hollywood and the streaming industry.

Its £81billion hostile bid may trigger an auction, and hands Warner Bros’ board a strong pretext to demand better terms from Netflix. 

But, more importantly, it crystallises two competing visions for what the global entertainment landscape will look like.

A merger of Paramount and Warner Bros would unite two of Hollywood’s grandest names. The latter was founded in 1923, and Paramount can trace its lineage back to 1912. 

It argues the combination would create a more muscular studio operation and allow the merger of HBO Max with Paramount+, producing a beefier challenger to Netflix.

A takeover by Netflix – the upstart-turned-behemoth, born less than 20 years ago as a DVD-by-post service and turbo-charged by the pandemic streaming boom – would be a triumph of the disruptor over the old order.

Tinseltown takeover: A merger of Paramount and Warner Bros would unite two of Hollywood’s grandest names

But it immediately raised concerns about excessive market power. Folding Warner Bros into the Netflix empire would create a super-streamer with unrivalled scale, prompting fears of reduced cinema releases and further pressure on traditional TV.

What hangs in the balance is how we will consume entertainment in the coming decade – whether we still go to the pictures, watch conventional television or continue the shift towards binge-watching from our sofas.

Regulators are already circling. President Trump has flagged potential concerns about a Netflix-Warner tie-up, and Paramount will be keen to prod politicians and competition authorities to intervene.

In the UK, Sky’s £1.6billion bid for ITV, launched by Comcast, looks like a sideshow by comparison. Yet in the shadow of a US mega-deal, our own regulators may feel more inclined to wave it through.

Pass the popcorn.

Fans of Nigel

It has been a characteristically eventful few days for Nigel Farage. No sooner had he banked a £9million donation from crypto-

tycoon Christopher Harborne than he found himself accused of falsifying election expenses – which Reform UK denies.

Despite the hurly-burly, his party is being taken ever more seriously in business circles. 

As veteran industrialist and Brexit critic John Neill noted in The Mail on Sunday, Reform is attracting interest from parts of the financial establishment. 

A former boss of Cazenove – once stockbroker to the Royal Family – told Bloomberg his City peers are now ‘Reform curious’.

Richard Tice, Farage’s deputy, has been on a charm offensive, promising a Thatcher-style Big Bang to revitalise the Square Mile. 

The pitch taps into frustration that the reforms touted by the Conservatives and Labour remain slow and incremental.

The crypto industry, which helped bankroll Donald Trump’s political resurgence in the US, has been assiduous in cultivating ties with Reform. 

The logic is simple: a fledgling party with no entrenched policy legacy is far easier to influence than the two main parties, both of which treat crypto with caution. 

Reform offers a blank page on which the industry hopes to inscribe its regulatory wish-list.

Crypto also draws on a vein of national disillusionment being mined very successfully by Farage. 

A recent UK advertising campaign by crypto platform Coinbase depicted Britain as a rain-soaked, rat-ridden wasteland where those who play by the rules face redundancy and decline. The implication: crypto is your only hope.

At a Las Vegas summit, Farage pledged to cut capital gains tax on crypto and create a bitcoin reserve at the Bank of England if he were to become Prime Minister.

Yet many in the financial establishment remain sceptical, viewing crypto as a breeding ground for speculation and scandal. 

And if the sector suffers another crash – a scenario many analysts regard as highly plausible – the backlash against a party seen as its champion could be severe.

One can only guess what Mrs Thatcher might have made of Reform claiming to inherit her mantle as liberator of the City. 

The appeal to the buccaneering spirit of traders is plain enough. But cosying up to Farage – particularly with crypto in the mix – risks alienating the mainstream parties whose support remains essential for the credibility of UK financial regulation.