Deadline reports U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, based in Oakland, California, has set the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger trial for March 2 to March 19, 2027.
The report also notes that the date is much closer to the time period sought by the 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America, who sued to block the transaction, rather than having a trial start this fall, as favored by Paramount.
Paramount had initially sought for the trial to begin this November, while the state AGs and WGA had proposed April 2027.
Paramount has to pay Warner Bros. Discovery $7 million for every day the merger does not close, after September 30. This was part of Paramount’s deal when the company had been competing with Netflix, which only wanted to acquire WBD’s HBO Max streaming service and HBO pay service; Paramount bid for all of WBD’s assets, including the movie studio.
The merger does have an expiration date of June 4, 2027.
Last month, Paramount was on its way to closing the transaction with WBD, as it gained regulatory approvals from around the world. However, 12 state attorneys general filed a temporary restraining order to put the merger on hold for at least four weeks.
Deadline further notes Paramount has said a trial next spring will require the company to refile merger materials with the Justice Department, which already approved the merger.
The 12 states suing to block the merger are California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.