{"id":34790,"date":"2025-07-24T22:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T22:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/34790\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T22:29:08","slug":"fcc-approves-paramount-skydance-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/34790\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Approves Paramount-Skydance Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe FCC<\/a> has granted approvals necessary to clear the way for the $8 billion merger of Paramount Global<\/a> and David Ellison\u2019s Skydance Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe agency OK\u2019d the transfer of licenses for 28 CBS-owned local TV stations to the Skydance-led ownership group that is taking over Paramount Global \u2014 removing the merger\u2019s final regulatory hurdle. The FCC approval comes more than a year after the parties first announced the agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the last obstacle removed, the deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe commission voted 2-1 to approve the deal, with Commissioner Anna Gomez opposing it. Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, said she was troubled by Paramount\u2019s payment to settle a suit brought by President Trump and by other concessions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAfter months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cUnfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe approval by the FCC, led by Trump-appointed chairman Brendan Carr, comes after Skydance made commitments in to the agency<\/a> in two areas: ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at Skydance and Paramount have been shut down; and appointing an ombudsman to review \u201ccomplaints of bias or other concerns\u201d involving CBS as part of ensuring \u201cviewpoint diversity.\u201d Skydance\u2019s top lawyer outlined the pledges in two letters to Carr dated July 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAmericans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly.\u00a0It is time for a change,\u201d Carr said in a statement. \u201cThat is why I welcome Skydance\u2019s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount Global declined to comment. A rep for Skydance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarr has been unapologetic in pushing Trump\u2019s agenda to eradicate DEI and crack down on alleged \u201cmedia bias\u201d<\/a> in dealing with companies under the FCC\u2019s regulatory purview. At the FCC\u2019s monthly open meeting earlier Thursday, Carr said he was \u201cpleased\u201d with Skydance\u2019s stated commitments<\/a> on both fronts, saying, \u201cThey\u2019re hitting on issues that I think we need to see significant change on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, the FCC approval comes after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to President Trump to settle his lawsuit against CBS<\/a> over a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview with Kamala Harris. Trump, which had been demanding an absurd $20 billion in damages, alleged the Harris interview was deceptively edited and constituted consumer fraud and interference with the 2024 presidential election. Before settling, Paramount and CBS moved to dismiss Trump\u2019s suit<\/a>\u00a0as \u201can affront to the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump, Paramount and Carr had each claimed that the FCC\u2019s deal-approval process was separate from the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d suit \u2014 despite allegations from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others that the settlement was a quid-pro-quo<\/a> to secure the Trump administration\u2019s approval of Paramount-Skydance. <\/p>\n

\n\tCarr, in a Feb. 7 interview with Fox News, said Trump \u201chas been right on these media bias issues\u201d<\/a> in discussing the FCC\u2019s review of a conservative group\u2019s complaint that the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d Harris interview represented \u201cnews distortion.\u201d He previously told Fox News the \u201cnews distortion\u201d complaint would\u00a0likely factor into the FCC\u2019s review of the Skydance-Paramount merger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the Paramount-Skydance deal, announced July 7, 2024, after months of on-again-off-again talks, Larry Ellison (father of David Ellison), Skydance and Gerry Cardinale\u2019s RedBird Capital will buy the shares of Shari Redstone\u2019s National Amusements Inc. (which owns 77% of the voting power in Paramount Global). At that point Skydance will merge with Paramount to become \u201cParamount Skydance Corp.\u201d While it will be controlled by the Ellison family, Paramount Skydance will remain publicly traded.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new company is to be led by chairman and CEO David Ellison, with Jeff Shell (former CEO of NBCUniversal) installed as president. Shari Redstone is set to receive $1.75 billion in cash upon closing of the Skydance deal, and she will exit the merged company\u2019s board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the deal had been in limbo pending FCC approval for months, Paramount undertook several rounds of layoffs, as the company\u2019s current three co-CEOs \u2014 CBS head George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime\/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, and Paramount Pictures head Brian Robbins \u2014 aimed to slash $500 million in annualized costs.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trio of co-CEOs are eligible for stepped-up severance payments in the event of a sale or merger<\/a>. Under revised terms of their employment contracts, Cheeks, McCarthy and Robbins will receive severance payments equivalent to two times their annual base salary plus twice their annual target bonus amount, among other benefits, in the event they\u2019re terminated in connection with a sale or merger of Paramount Global (or within two years of such a transaction). In addition, Paramount last fall added a provision to their employment agreements that will\u00a0let them quit and receive those same severance benefits<\/a>\u00a0if they are demoted.<\/p>\n

\n\tPictured above (l. to r.): FCC chairman Brendan Carr; Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone; Skydance Media CEO David Ellison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FCC has granted approvals necessary to clear the way for the $8 billion merger of Paramount Global…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,3092,3093,27689,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-34790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-fcc","10":"tag-paramount-global","11":"tag-skydance-media","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}