David Ellison officially takes over as CEO of Skydance, the new mega-merger bringing together Paramount and Warner Bros.
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David Becker/Getty Images for CinemaCon
LOS ANGELES — A new era in Hollywood is about to begin with a new media conglomerate called Skydance.
David Ellison’s long-awaited – and dreaded – deal to consolidate Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to wrap up on Tuesday. The merger, costing $111 billion, was the subject of public protests for months, but ultimately overcame legal and regulatory challenges in the United States and Europe.
Ellison will control the new media empire with help from his billionaire father Larry Ellison and investors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. Skydance is comprised of two legendary film studios, both over 100 years old: Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.
“Paramount and Warner Bros. have shaped more than a century of culture. By combining them, we are not rewriting history – we are equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine,” Ellison wrote in an article on X last week, along with a video unveiling Skydance. “What was at its peak is now just the beginning,” the video presenter said.
Ellison and company. will also control both companies’ streaming services, including Paramount+ and HBO Max. They will also receive MTV, Comedy Central and Food Network. And they will control two huge media outlets: CNN and CBS News.
“This deal is fundamentally pro-competition, pro-consumer, and pro-responsible for the entire creative economy,” Ellison told CNBC in March, after outbidding Netflix. “We now have a library of 15,000 films, ranging from Harry Potter to the DC Universe, Mission Impossible, Top GunAnd The godfather under one roof. »
Among the television shows that Skydance distributes are Ted Lasso, The daily showTHE Star Trek franchise, and all those Looney Tunes cartoons.
Ellison has already announced that his co-CEO will be Ynon Kreiz, the former boss of Mattel.
In an aerial view, the Warner Bros. logo. is displayed on the Warner Bros. studio water tower. last month in Burbank, California.
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But Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, the duo who ran Warner Bros. Pictures, are now irrelevant. Last year at the Oscars they celebrated the awards for their films Sinners And One battle after another.
The merger resulted in numerous public feuds with people working in the entertainment and information industries; the Writers Guild of America and 12 state attorneys general unsuccessfully tried to block the merger through lawsuits.
As part of the deal with the States, Ellison agreed that the combined studios would make 30 films per year for the next few years. But critics remain skeptical.
Many viewers and journalists are also worried about what could happen to CNN, with David and Larry Ellison being allies of President Trump.
People walk in front of the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan on March 20, 2026 in New York. CBS News and CNN Merge in Acquisition of Paramount and Warner Bros.
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
“We are concerned about Ellison’s corruption of CNN,” attorney Jessica Gonzalez told NPR. She is co-CEO of the media advocacy nonprofit Free Press, which helped organize the Block the Merger Coalition. (This should not be confused with the media company Free Press, founded by CBS News executive Bari Weiss.)
“We are concerned about what the Ellisons have already done since they took control of Paramount and CBS. They are willing to use their money and their power to censor information, to demolish stories that they or the president doesn’t like,” Gonzalez said. “We deserve better than billionaire oligarchs who control our media system.”
To get the deal before a federal judge in the antitrust lawsuit, Ellison promised to create an independent oversight board to protect CNN from political interference. Skydance says current CNN head Mark Thompson will stay. Bari Weiss will continue to lead CBS News.
Opponents of the deal predict that viewers may soon have to pay more for streaming services, that they may have fewer choices and that there may be fewer films and TV shows at risk. And they say layoffs are inevitable.
Ellison goes into this business with a huge debt. Beyond the $111 billion price tag, he promised to pay $7 million to Warner Bros. shareholders. from October 1 until the conclusion of the agreement.
For now, workers at both companies will start the day with a bit of uncertainty about their future at…
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