How big is Skydance’s new TV empire? Really big

One of the main talking points repeated by CEO David Ellison and Paramount executives in the run-up to the Warner Bros. takeover. Discovery is that the combined company would produce 30 feature films each year.

It’s a significant production, but it pales in comparison to the number of television productions controlled by the now-merged company, Skydance.

Warner Bros. Television was, single-handedly, the most prolific studio in the industry. It has more than 80 series of all types, ranging from The Pitt At Bachelor franchise – on around twenty different networks and streamers.

The television studio’s operation is instantly more than 50 percent larger than WBTV’s. That doesn’t even take into account the equally massive reach that Skydance’s combined cable network portfolio and streaming operations will have. Here’s a breakdown of each of these facets of the company’s business.

Studios: Will the three stick around?

CBS Studios and Paramount TV Studios, the Paramount arm of Skydance’s TV portfolio, together produce 75 current or upcoming shows, including international co-productions. CBS Studios is responsible for most of its namesake network’s scripted series, including NCIS franchise, Sheriff/Land of Fire And Elsbeth. Paramount TV Studios, meanwhile, owns all of Taylor Sheridan’s current output, as well as Reach (co-produced with Amazon MGM Studios), Dexter: Resurrection and others.

This represents more than 150 series from the new Skydance. And at least for now, that won’t change.

“We are not looking to reduce production,” co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said at a news conference on the day the merger closed. “This is an efficient operation, and we have plans to achieve this while retaining the creative modules to ensure the creativity continues to flow.”

A day after the merger became official, there are no firm plans as to if, much less how, the three studios will consolidate certain operations. As Skydance aims to achieve $6 billion in “synergies” – that is, layoffs and the elimination of some duplicate functions – to help it deal with its $80 billion debt load, some consolidation is likely to occur.

Recent history may (or may not) serve as a guide here. In the years following Disney’s absorption of Fox’s entertainment assets, four studios – 20th TV, ABC Studios, ABC Signature and Fox 21 – were eventually consolidated into one; The 20th is the only survivor. Before the merger, Paramount closed Paramount TV Studios in 2024, then relaunched the name a year later, combining Showtime/MTV Entertainment and Skydance TV.

However, none of these had the scale of the new Skydance. With Channing Dungey (WBTV), David Stapf (CBS Studios) and Matt Thunell (PTVS), all three studios have long-serving executives (Thunell led Skydance TV for several years before PTVS reconstituted). Each will likely try to protect their own spheres as much as possible, although all three ultimately report to TV boss George Cheeks.

Streaming: taking it to the next level

The big question hanging over Skydance’s streaming operations is not so much if HBO Max and Paramount+ will be combined into a single service, but when? Ellison has repeatedly said he wants the two platforms to merge – but the “when” part is more complicated. It will take some time to consolidate the two streamers onto a single technology platform and merge two huge libraries.

What East However, it’s clear that when Ellison was talking about having the scale to compete with tech companies, as well as the Netflixes and Disneys of the world, he was talking about streaming. The combined reach of HBO Max and Paramount+ is around 200 million subscribers worldwide – behind Netflix (like all other US-based streamers) but on par with Amazon’s Prime Video and Disney’s combined offerings (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN). In the United States, according to monthly figures from Nielsen, Skydance’s streaming and linear TV channels will account for just under 12% of total TV usage.

Casey Bloys (creative) and JB Perrette (business) will lead the company’s streaming division, both from WBD. HBO boss Bloys will have a collection of hits: The Pitt, Landman And Dutton Ranch were among the biggest shows in the United States in 2025-2026. HBO staples like The White Lotus And The last of us and Sheridan’s Paramount+ stable of series (at least for the next two years) is also producing new seasons.

One thing to watch out for is how Skydance will brand a combined platform. The HBO name has the most cachet in the current mix – even after the stupid HBO Max-Max-HBO Max that once again marked the mess of recent years. HBO Max is also by far the larger of the two platforms, with about 70% more subscribers in raw numbers (not counting people who pay for both) than Paramount+. Given that Bloys and Perrette are running things, this seems like a signal that HBO Max could be winning when it comes to branding.

Cable: the greatest reach in a declining market

As she was at WBD, Dungey will now oversee Skydance’s massive portfolio of more than 25 cable networks. These assets broadcast dozens of shows from outside producers, most of them small companies specializing in unscripted and documentary programming. Former networks WBD Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC and ID are among the cable industry’s biggest buyers of original programming.

There is also some overlap: Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon are both aimed at children and have strong animation businesses; TBS, TNT, TruTV (which for some reason is missing from the image below from Skydance’s portfolio), and Paramount Network have similar general audience missions (although Paramount has no sports rights). Above all this is cable’s decade-long decline as a profit center.

The antitrust agreement between Paramount and state attorneys general requires Skydance to negotiate separate carriage deals with cable and satellite operators — one for the former Paramount channels and one for the WBD channels. This might be a bit of a headache for the Skydance. The biggest question is how long and on what scale the newly merged corporate event wants to stay in the cable business.

October 13, 2:55 p.m. An earlier version of this story underestimated the number of shows produced by CBS and Paramount TV studios, and thus the combined total of those two and Warner Bros. TV.