Chris McCarthy to step down as co-chief exec at US studio with David Ellison named CEO
The long-gestating £8bn (£5.9bn) merger between Paramount Global and David Ellison’s Skydance Media has been approved by the US government’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The decision follows months of scrutiny and comes one year after the companies agreed in principle to merge. Ellison, the aerobatic pilot and son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, will become CEO and the youngest studio owner in Hollywood at 42.
Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy will leave once the merger is complete, although it remains to be seen what will happen to his co-CEOs George Cheeks, who heads CBS, and Brian Robbins, who oversees the studio business.
The FCC voted 2-1 in favour of the merger, led by Donald Trump appointee and commission chairman Brendan Carr.
The Republican praised Skydance’s commitment to hire an ombudsman to review alleged media bias in the news programming at Paramount Global’s CBS, and not introduce DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, in line with the Trump administration’s sentiments.
Skydance has co-financed Top Gun and Mission: Impossible tentpoles with Paramount and was backed in its bid by RedBird Capital, which – in conjunction with Abu Dhabi-based IMI – is a co-owner of super-indie All3Media.
Former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell will serve as president of Paramount once the merger completes.
The deal will mean Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone relinquishes control of a company that had been in the family for decades after her late father, Sumner Redstone, bought Viacom in 1987 and went on to build a sprawling media empire.
Combined firepower
The deal gives 15-year-old Skydance an access point to a raft of global production companies, studios and buyers, ranging from flagship SVoD Paramount+ to joint venture streamer SkyShowtime, operated with Comcast.
It also operates AVoD and FAST provider Pluto TV and SVoD BET+, as well as broadcast network CBS. In the US, Paramount also has cable assets BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Paramount+ with Showtime and Pop TV.
On the production side, Skydance’s stablemates are plentiful, ranging from Yellowstone producer MTV Entertainment Studios and Fire Country firm CBS Studios, to Paramount Television Studios, BET Studios, Nickelodeon Studios, Awesomeness and See It Now Studios on the small screen side.
Skydance will also be able to access film studios Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players, Paramount Animation and Republic Pictures, and around the world, Paramount has Network 10 in Australia, Chilevision in Chile - which is reportedly up for sale - and Argentina’s Telefe.
Quite how the merger impacts these international businesses remains to be seen, but Ellison said last year that “there are potential partnerships that absolutely need to be evaluated” in comments last year. Shell added that the company would not “be binary, we’re fairly agnostic [about who we do business with]”.
From Paramount’s perspective, Skydance’s TV studio operates in the HETV field with high-octane spy titles Jack Ryan and Reacher and thriller Cross for Amazon Prime, Fubar, Altered Carbon and Grace and Frankie for Netflix, and sci-fi Foundation for Apple TV+ among its offerings.
Its Skydance Sports arm has a hand in premium sports docs for streamers, while its Skydance Animation scored a huge multi-year development deal with Netflix last year for feature films.
Political process
The FCC approval comes after a takeover process that has been engulfed by politics. CBS recently agreed to pay $16m towards Trump’s presidential library to settle a ‘60 Minutes’ lawsuit brought by the president over allegedly deceptive editing of an interview with former presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Legal experts said the case was without merit.
Talk show host Stephen Colbert, a longtime Trump critic, said the settlement was “a big fat bribe”. Several days later CBS announced it would end The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in May 2026, retiring a decades-old institution for reasons it insisted were financial and not motivated by anything else.
An episode of Comedy Central’s animated series South Park this week poked fun at the settlement. Last December, Disney paid $15m to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump amid a climate critics say is designed to intimidate opponents of the president’s policies.
Carr said: “Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change.”
He added: ”These commitments, if implemented, would enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage. Doing so would begin the process of earning back Americans’ trust.”
Carr’s fellow Republican FCC member Oliva Trusty also voted in favour of the merger. However in a strong dissenting vote, Democrat Anna Gomez said: “I cannot support this order approving this transaction in light of the payout and other troubling concessions Paramount made to settle a baseless lawsuit.
“After months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted. Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.”
US senator Elizabeth Warren also voiced her concerns around the merger and regulatory process behind it, calling for a Senate investigation into proceedings.
“Bribery is illegal no matter who is president,” she said via a statement.
“It sure looks like Skydance and Paramount paid $36m to Donald Trump for this merger, and he’s even bragged about this crooked-looking deal.
“I’ve been ringing the alarm bell for months, launching a Senate investigation into possible corruption, and this merger must be investigated for any criminal behavior. It’s an open question whether the Trump administration’s approval of this merger was the result of a bribe.”
- A version of this story first appeared on our sister publication Screen
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