Latest news with #ShariRedstone
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Skydance Deal Done, What Next For Paramount Global?
(Photo by) It's been a long, brutal, wildly partisan, and wholly unlikely slog to get here, but Shari Redstone finally gets to preserve her family fortune by selling her patrimony, the media empire laboriously assembled by father Sumner, for about $8.5 billion and goodness knows how much cortisol and angst. So now what? Where does Skydance Entertainment, the media company assembled by mogul-in-the-making David Ellison, scion of another wealthy industry pioneer, take Paramount Global now that the Federal Communications Commission has finally signed off on the deal, clearing the way for it to close on Aug. 7? Some big moves already have happened, just in the past several days: Up next: widespread whacking. Ellison's deal proposal called for a merger of Skydance and Paramount that would enable a massive $2 billion in cost savings. Likely targets include those former Viacom networks that Sumner Redstone turned into a 1990s cable powerhouse, financing his subsequent acquisitions of the storied Paramount Pictures studio and lot, and CBS broadcast operations. These days, however, cord-cutting has turned much of cable into dead networks walking. Comcast's NBCUniversal has already spun off nearly all its cable operations other than Bravo into a standalone company called Versant. Warner Bros. Discovery has reorganized in similar fashion, and announced plans to split off its Global Networks unit into a separate company under CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, along with a boatload of debt and a 20-percent stake in the remaining Streaming & Studios unit that it's supposed to sell within a year of the split. LightShed Partners analysts led by Richard Greenfield posted a quick note last week, revisiting the 2013 Netflix prediction of linear TV's eventual demise, suggesting that Colbert's imminent departure is one of those big signs that it's actually starting to happen, except in live news and sports. 'Over the next few years, we expect virtually all linear TV programming outside of sports and news to shift to catalog content and reruns of what appeared on streaming; there simply will not be a business model to support original entertainment programming on linear TV," the LightShed note reads. "That will lead consumers to seek increasingly smaller (skinnier) bundles of channels focused on broadcast networks, sports channels, and news channels. Makes you wonder why any investor would want to own the plethora of coming standalone cable network companies.' Yes, indeed. It seems highly likely that Paramount holdings such as Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon depart the mothership in similar fashion, perhaps in a Titanic-sized merger of sinking ships with Versant and/or Global Networks. Ellison has proved a savvy enough operator that he likely wouldn't lead or finance that sort of rollup, but perhaps he could use a spinoff to lighten debt loads and position Paramount Global for a media future where cable delivery matters less and less. And while Ellison has committed to beefing up local news operations, what's he going to do with CBS News? Both its morning show and its evening news are mired in third place, with on-air talent that, at least traditionally, enjoyed extremely generous contracts. Will CBS News do more (or, more likely, less) with less? Numerous notable on-air personalities have departed recently across all the broadcast networks, including CBS News' Nora O'Donnell and NBC's Hoda Kotb. Expect more of that to continue. The Paramount Studios lot has long been home for both film and TV production, but in truth, has often used as a site for various conferences, food festivals and the like, suggesting its facilities haven't been fully exploited for many years. Does Ellison amp up the film-production spending, at a time when movie theaters in the United States are still generating subsequently lower revenues than they did before the pandemic (that was one of Redstone's challenges; her family's National Amusements, which has had a controlling share of Paramount, also owns hundreds of underperforming theaters) Skydance will bring some areas of focus that haven't been part of any corner of Paramount lately, including a videogame unit and feature animation (though South Park's creators pungently reminded everyone last week they can still dish out the satire, even if it will be available mostly on streaming going forward). The changes ahead are likely to be deep and painful, particularly amid a deep recession afflicting the entertainment business in Hollywood, in whose literal physical neighborhood the Paramount lot sits. But perhaps the relatively young and tech-savvy Ellison, a hugely successful movie producer (recent Mission: Impossible movies and much else) and son of one of the world's handful of richest people, is just the person to take a century-old movie studio into this uncertain future. Plenty of work lies ahead.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Connie Chung Says ‘Shame On' Shari Redstone and the Ellisons: ‘I Fear the End of CBS as I Knew It'
"The days [of] honest, unbiased, fact-based journalism is being tainted, " the former "CBS Evening News" anchor tells CNN's Brianna Keilar Former 'CBS Evening News' anchor Connie Chung said the impending sale of Paramount and '60 Minutes' skirmish with Donald Trump represent 'the end of CBS News' as she knew it, blaming Shari Redstone and the Ellisons for the demise of 'unbiased, fact-based journalism.' 'CBS was always a standalone network,' Chung said in a CNN interview with Brianna Keilar on Saturday. 'The news division was autonomous. It was always unencumbered by pressures from politicians – including presidents – and unencumbered by bean-counters. But now I can see that the days [of] honest, unbiased, fact-based journalism is being tainted. More from TheWrap Connie Chung Says 'Shame On' Shari Redstone and the Ellisons: 'I Fear the End of CBS as I Knew It' | Video Dan Bongino Issues Ominous Statement About FBI Corruption Probe: 'Shocked Me Down to My Core' Bill O'Reilly Predicts Stephen Colbert 'Won't Last 'Til May,' Foresees Shakeup at 'The View': 'She's Gone' | Video Larry Ellison to Hold 35.5% of Family's Voting Rights in New Paramount, National Amusements After Skydance Merger Closes Chung placed the blame squarely on Redstone, chair of Paramount Global, and 'Larry Ellison, and his son David,' who 'seem to only know greed, avarice. I worry about the CBS I used to know.' Chung rose to national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming one of the first Asian American women to anchor a major U.S. network newscast. At different points she worked for all of the 'Big Three' networks — CBS, NBC, and ABC — and later at CNN. 'Ellison's lawyers told CBS that they would wipe away diversity,' Chung said. 'I would never have had a glorious career … had it not been for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in which women and minorities were finally seen as equal.' Watch the entire interview in the video clip above. The post Connie Chung Says 'Shame On' Shari Redstone and the Ellisons: 'I Fear the End of CBS as I Knew It' | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Secrets of South Park Trump-Epstein episode that will further anger the White House
Top brass at the entertainment conglomerate that airs South Park signed off on a controversial episode of the series that viciously mocked President Donald Trump while linking him to Jeffrey Epstein. Comedy Central owner Paramount Global's three co-CEOs all the watched the show's no-holds-barred season 27 premiere, which featured Trump in bed with Satan and a deepfake of the president wandering nude in the desert, Puck News reported. Chris McCarthy, George Cheeks, and Brian Robbins were leaning toward airing it before running by their boss, Paramount heiress Shari Redstone. Redstone reportedly didn't watch the episode but 'trusted [the executives'] judgment and would support their decision,' Puck News reported. The trio concluded it was OK, despite the episode taking on Paramount's $16 million settlement with Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris and CBS canceling the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The episode scandalously showed Trump in bed with Satan and later featured a deepfake of the president stripping down and bearing his 'teeny-tiny' penis. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker ultimately agreed to edit the scene, which showed an AI-generated depiction of a sweaty and nude Trump in the desert. On Thursday, the creators revealed how they battled with the network over the decision to show Trump's penis in the scene. On Thursday, the creators revealed how they battled with the network over the decision to show Trump's penis in the scene 'Trump: His penis is teeny-tiny, but his love for us is large,' flashes a line on screen. Parker explained how executives reacted. 'They're like, "OK, but we're gonna blur the penis,"' Parker recalled. 'I'm like, "No, you're not gonna blur the penis."' Stone added, '[So] we put eyes on the penis.' 'If we put eyes on the penis, we won't blur it. And then that was a whole conversation for about four f**king days,' Parker explained. 'It's a character.' The White House issued a scathing statement in response. 'This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,' a portion read. The episode saw the president threaten the town South Park with an endless array of lawsuits. The threats were a clear reference to Trump's recent suits against ABC, The Wall Street Journal, and even Paramount, which some have criticized as baseless. Paramount found itself on Parker and Stone's bad side earlier this year, after it blocked a $1 billion deal Stone and Parker previously had with Paramount and HBO Max that would have allowed both platforms to air their series. Stone and Parker - known for standing up to networks and censors - said no, claiming Skydance boss David Ellison was trying to lower the market value of their show. The creators then secured a $1.5-billion exclusive streaming deal with Paramount this week. The deal also confirms 50 new episodes that will air on Comedy Central and stream exclusively on Paramount Plus over five years. The new season was originally slated to start July 9, but was delayed two weeks due to complications from the then ongoing merger.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Media Buzz' host Howard Kurtz said that CBS axed Stephen Colbert simply to gain Trump's approval.
Fox News host Howard Kurtz isn't buying that CBS axed Stephen Colbert solely for financial reasons. Kurtz called out CBS' parent company Paramount on Media Buzz Sunday, accusing it of cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in order to gain President Donald Trump's approval. 'This is about Shari Redstone, who needs Trump administration approval to have this sale to Skydance go through and make a lot of money, in my view, really tarnishing the network of Murrow and Cronkite,' Kurtz told guest Brian Steinberg, who is a senior TV editor at Variety.
New York Times
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Not Even ‘The Late Show' Could Defy Gravity
Stephen Colbert's announcement on Thursday night that 'The Late Show' was being canceled by CBS stunned the entertainment industry, the public and even his staff. But the writing had been on the wall for some time. 'The Late Show,' a fixture of the network for over three decades, was racking up losses of tens of millions of dollars a year, and the gap was growing fast, according to two people familiar with the show's finances. Like other late-night shows before it, 'The Late Show' was canceled when the network could not figure how to make the finances work in an entertainment world increasingly dominated by streaming. So as CBS executives mapped out the schedule and budget for next year, George Cheeks, CBS's president, decided in recent weeks that the network couldn't take those losses any more, the two people said. Mr. Colbert learned of the decision on Wednesday night. Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, CBS's parent company, learned about it on Thursday, according to two other people. The cancellation underscores just how rapidly the late-night genre has fallen. Not even 'The Late Show,' the highest rated of those network talk shows, was safe, as many in the entertainment industry assumed it was. Nevertheless, questions lingered on Friday about whether political calculations — not strictly financial ones — had played a role in the decision as well. Paramount is closing a multibillion-dollar merger with the movie studio Skydance, a deal that still requires approval from the Trump administration. Early this month, Paramount agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over an interview on CBS's '60 Minutes.' Mr. Colbert, a longtime critic of Mr. Trump, called that settlement 'a big fat bribe' on his show this week. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
