{"id":80693,"date":"2025-08-13T22:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T22:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/80693\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T22:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T22:44:09","slug":"bet-networks-no-longer-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/80693\/","title":{"rendered":"BET Networks No Longer for Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBET<\/a> Networks is no longer being shopped to third-party buyers, the new leadership regime at Paramount Skydance<\/a> confirmed Wednesday as top executives gathered for a wide-ranging Q&A with journalists.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Ellison<\/a>, CEO of the studio that he acquired last week, told reporters that BET and its content franchises would be a key part of the new regime\u2019s streaming strategy. Ellison said the plan is to operate the company with its assets intact \u2014 that\u2019s in contrast to the string of assets sales that Paramount Global and its predecessors have done in recent years. BET in particular had been shopped to a number of prospective buyers in private equity and prominent Black investors and stars including Tyler Perry.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison said the concept of keeping Paramount Pictures, CBS and other assets together was a key point of his earliest discussions last year about buying the studio with former Paramount Global chair and majority shareholder Shari Redstone.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED CONTENT: David Ellison Reports for Mogul Duty<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had this conversation with Shari when we had the first meeting, actually about the company. It is our intention is to keep the company together and invest in that lens,\u201d Ellison said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re thinking about the cable network is not as declining linear assets that we need to spin them up or deal with somehow. We\u2019re thinking about those brands that we have to redefine,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cNickelodeon is also one of those. Fids and family is so important to the world and making sure that we\u2019re doing the right thing for Nick and that whole cadre of content is critically important to us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOverall, Ellison and his top lieutenants sketched out a roadmap for the new Paramount Skydance taeam\u2019s priorities that include increased investment in Paramount Pictures studio, CBS and the Paramount+ streaming platform. Ellison and Paramount president Jeff Shell reiterated that the plan is to consolidate the company\u2019s major streaming assets \u2014 Paramount+ and free ad-supported platform Pluto TV \u2014 into one central service to save operating costs and to make Pluto TV a better driver of subscriptions for Paramount+.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoining Ellison and Shell at the session were Andy Gordon, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer; George Cheeks, Chair of TV Media; Dana Goldberg, Co-Chair of Paramount Pictures and Chair of Paramount Television; Josh Greenstein, Co-Chair of Paramount Pictures and Vice Chair of Platforms; and Cindy Holland, Chair of Direct-to-Consumer.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked point blank if the programming budget for Paramount+ will increase to make the service competitive with larger rivals such as Disney+ and HBO Max, Ellison said yes. Cindy Holland, the Netflix alum who is leading streaming operations for the new Paramount, was also blunt when asked if she intends to commission made-for-streaming movies from the sibling studio. \u201cMade for streaming movies are not a priority for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tGerry Cardinale, head of RedBird Capital which also had a big role in financing the $8 billion transaction, offered an expansive view of a team ready to spend what it takes to upgrade Paramount\u2019s aging infrastructure. Cardinale complimented Ellison for being a savvy business executive in addition to having the creative ambition to own a movie studio, Big Three broadcast network and more.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m betting my firm in my career on this deal. That should tell you guys one thing: We are coming, we are going to invest, and we\u2019re going to be really sophisticated. This is not other people\u2019s money,\u201d Cardinale said. He even suggested that the Paramount Skydance ethos would not only change the corporate culture at Paramount and CBS but influence the broader industry. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe new regime is thinking about \u201chow do we build the culture, not just for Paramount but for Hollywood,\u201d Cardinale said. \u201cI could not be more excited. Yes we are going to be investing a lot of money, and we\u2019re going to show the great return on that investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMore to come<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BET Networks is no longer being shopped to third-party buyers, the new leadership regime at Paramount Skydance confirmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[47133,18205,88,48502,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-80693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bet","9":"tag-david-ellison","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-paramount-skydance","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80693","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=80693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}