Paramount Skydance Merger Wins FCC’s Approval

Key Takeaways

It's happened. It's over the line. Uh what did the parties have to do to get us there, Chris? >> Well, goodbye to all those diversity, equity, inclusion programs. Paramount, like a lot of companies, was was trying to get more uh people of color, more diverse people on screen behind the scenes. Uh all of that uh effort is gone. Uh another big change is in the newsroom at CBS. There's going to be a ombbudsman who's uh going to handle claims of media bias. Uh this is the company that just this month settled a $16 million lawsuit with President Trump over alleged uh bias at 60 Minutes. So uh this will be a person sort of in the newsroom poking around for a couple years to come at least. >> I mean the fallout continues about the late show with Steven Colbear. There's a lot that has been swallowed, bitter pills or not. Chris, remind us of the prize, why they're doing this, and what the future looks like. >> Yeah. So, end of an era for the Redstone family, which is controlled this media empire is assembled by some of Redstone over decades. So, we're talking about MTV, Nickelodeon, uh the CBS network, Paramount Pictures Film Studio, uh all wonderful brands, but in trouble. And so there's a reason the Redstones uh gave up essentially. Uh David Ellison, who's injecting a lot of his father's money and his own media assets in here, has work to do from day one. Uh the traditional cable channels are shrinking in double digits and the broadcast network. Uh and as people switch to streaming, but their streaming business, Paramount Plus, is still losing money. and their movie studio, as glorious as it is, uh, is barely profitable and and really and also ran compared to the biggies, Warner Brothers, Disney, and Universal. So, he's going to have to deal with all