David Ellison doesn’t even personal Paramount however he’s planning to develop it, On The Cash has realized.
The Skydance chief – with cash to burn from his billionaire dad, Oracle founder Larry Ellison – is aware of that within the new period of media, he wants scale to compete even when most different media firms are floundering.
In the meantime, Shari Redstone is alleged to be keen to throw Donald Trump as much as $50 million to settle a lawsuit with Paramount’s CBS Information subsidiary to make it occur, On The Cash can affirm. Extra on that in a bit.
Scale is one thing that Paramount – with a money-losing streaming channel and outdated media properties like CBS, Nickelodeon and MTV, plus a film studio – simply doesn’t have. It’s one of many causes the controlling Redstone household is promoting.
Put merely, Paramount is simply too small to compete with business giants like Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery.
So the discuss in media circles is that when the Paramount-Skydance deal is signed and authorized by the White Home (extra on that arduous highway in a second) David and Larry will begin shopping for stuff.
One drawback is that Paramount has a comparatively small worldwide presence. Which means David (or to be extra exact Larry) must dip into his pockets to broaden the attain of its streaming product exterior the US if they need it to begin making even a couple of dollars like rival Warner Bros. Discovery has completed in its foray into streaming.
Paramount might additionally use higher signature media properties. CBS isn’t what it was, and as we are going to focus on, its information division is a bastion of hassle for all its historical past of nice journalism. Nickelodeon and MTV have seen viewership decline due to wire chopping and competitors from social media (suppose TikTok).
I’m informed Skydance’s new administration led by the very succesful Jeff Shell, previously of NBCU, and presently with RedBird Capital (Skydance’s accomplice within the deal), can’t wait to get its fingers on CBS Sports activities merchandise and modernize supply.
However sports activities are costly. CBS pays greater than $2 billion a 12 months for NFL broadcast rights and the league has an opt-out choice in 4 years.
Sure, the Ellisons have the cash to make it work, so search for a deal or two or three, I’m informed, ought to the Paramount buy lastly get authorized by Trump’s regulators on the Federal Communications Fee. (A Skydance rep had no remark).
However their drawback isn’t with cash. It’s with the Trump FCC and the inherent woke nature of Paramount, and CBS specifically, and it facilities on prices of bias in its information programming that now face oversight from a White Home that hates all issues woke. It’s additionally with Trump, who’s suing the corporate over the alleged bias.
Reporters have a First Modification protect to specific opinion and canopy the information, in fact. That extends to broadcast firms. But when these firms wish to function over public airwaves (versus cable) additionally they have some duties, together with presenting programming within the public curiosity (information that’s sans political bias). Plus, they should adjust to varied legal guidelines, together with people who govern employment practices.
Regulators evaluate compliance with all of the above when media properties change fingers, as within the case of Skydance’s $8 billion deal to buy Paramount from Redstone. The FCC desires assurances Paramount will not discriminate in hiring via Range Fairness and Inclusion insurance policies, which had dominated its employment practices for years.
Evaluations additionally kick in when there’s a credible grievance made that the information is tilted in a political method, as was the case when a conservative authorized group filed a cost with FCC that stated CBS in the course of the warmth of the 2024 presidential election deceptively edited an interview with then-Dem presidential candidate Kamala Harris to make her sound extra coherent than ordinary.
Each of these points are being adjudicated by Trump’s FCC, whereas Trump himself has sued CBS claiming $20 billion in damages over the contested Harris interview.
Right here’s the place issues stand: Paramount, even earlier than altering fingers, has been ditching DEI at the least in title, and can proceed to take action in apply as soon as Ellison takes over, I’m informed.
The FCC just lately met with the conservative authorized group often known as CAR, or the Middle For American Rights, that filed the grievance over the Harris interview that appeared on “60 Minutes.”
CBS has publicly denied it did something fallacious, however the FCC’s assembly with CAR mentioned cures that might salsify the group and result in regulators giving the deal the inexperienced gentle, sources informed On The Cash.
These measures embrace transferring a few of CBS’ information operations out of deep blue LA or NYC and appointing an out of doors group to observe left-wing political bias in its information programming.
Redstone is alleged to be keen to pay Trump tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to settle the swimsuit simply so she will put the matter behind her and protect some household wealth, even when it could dent CBS’ rep.
And it’s fairly clear why she’s in such a rush to place this saga behind her. Recall that in 2019, when she took over the media firm created by her dad, the late media mogul Sumner Redstone, Paramount was value $30 billion. The cope with Skydance now values it at $8 and when all is alleged and performed, she’s going to stroll away with round $2 billion.
You do the maths: Paying Trump $50 million will nonetheless enable her to protect at the least $1 billion of her inheritance.
