FCC Okay’s Skydance’s Plan to Buy Paramount Global

Paving the way for the closure of one of the biggest media deals of the last decade, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday approved Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global and its subsidiaries, including the ultimate parent company of the CBS network of owned and operated broadcast television stations, by granting a series of applications that transfer FCC licenses and authorisations.

Paramount and Skydance announced their merger agreement in July last year. The Skydance consortium, composed of the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners, said at the time that it would invest about $8 billion in the deal.

As part of the transaction, the consortium will acquire National Amusements, which is controlled by Shari Redstone, and which holds Paramount’s voting rights and entered merger negotiations with Skydance in December 2023. Paramount owns CBS, MTV and a portfolio of cable television assets globally, including the Australian free-to-air Network 10.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said that the Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It was time for a change and he welcomed Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.

“In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum. It will also adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media,” he said.

These commitments, if implemented, would enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage. Doing so would begin the process of earning back Americans’ trust, he said.

According to Carr, the decision also marks another step forward in the FCC’s efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination. And Skydance’s commitment to enhancing local news and reporting, coverage valued by the public, will also inure to the benefit of the American people.

Commitment to Unbiased Journalism

Skydance has made written commitments to ensuring that the new company’s array of news and entertainment programming will embody a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum and that CBS’s reporting will be fair, unbiased, and fact-based.

To promote transparency and increased accountability, Skydance has committed, for a period of at least two years, to have in place an ombudsman who will report to the President of New Paramount and evaluate complaints of bias.

Skydance will ensure that the discriminatory DEI Policies End. Skydance, which has no DEI programs in place as of now, has committed that it will not establish any such initiatives at the new company and confirms that New Paramount will also be committed to equal opportunity employment and non-discrimination, he said.

This will ensure that the combined business will enact policies and practices consistent with the law and the public interest.

Injection of New Capital

Carr said that approving this transaction will unleash the investment of $1.5 billion into Paramount, bolstering all aspects of its operations, including broadcast. Skydance also reaffirms its commitment to localism as a core component of the public interest standard, and emphasizes that it will work closely with its affiliated broadcast stations to ensure a productive partnership that will strengthen its affiliates’ ability to serve their local communities.