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The US government’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the proposed $8bn Paramount Global merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
The FCC voted 2-1 in favour of the measure, led by Donald Trump appointee and commission chairman Brendan Carr. The Republican praised Skydance’s commitment to hire an ombudsman to review alleged media bias in the news programming at Paramount Global’s CBS, and not introduce DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, in line with the Trump administration’s sentiments.
Thursday’s decision follows months of scrutiny and comes one year after the companies agreed in principle to merge. Ellison, the aerobatic pilot and son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, will become CEO and the youngest studio owner in Hollywood at 42.
Skydance has co-financed Top Gun and Mission: Impossible tentpoles with Paramount and was backed in its bid by RedBird Capital. Former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell will serve as president.
Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy will leave once the merger is complete, although it remains to be seen what will happen to his co-CEOs George Cheeks, who heads CBS, and Brian Robbins, who oversees the studio business.
The merger means Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone relinquishes control of a company that had been in the family for decades after her late father, Sumner Redstone, bought Viacom in 1987 and built an empire that encompasses the jewel in the crown Paramount Pictures, as well as CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and MTV.
The entire process has been engulfed by politics. CBS recently agreed to pay $16m towards Trump’s presidential library to settle a ‘60 Minutes’ lawsuit brought by the president over allegedly deceptive editing of an interview with former presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Legal experts said the case was without merit.
Talk show host Stephen Colbert, a longtime Trump critic, said the settlement was “a big fat bribe”. Several days later CBS announced it would end The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in May 2026, retiring a decades-old institution for reasons it insisted were financial and not motivated by anything else.
An episode of Comedy Central’s animated series South Park this week poked fun at the settlement. Last December, Disney paid $15m to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump amid a climate critics say is designed to intimidate opponents of the president’s policies.
Carr said, ”Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change” He added: ”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.”
Carr’s fellow Republican FCC member Oliva Trusty also voted in favour of the merger. However in a strong dissenting vote, Democrat Anna Gomez said: “I cannot support this order approving this transaction in light of the payout and other troubling concessions Paramount made to settle a baseless lawsuit. After months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted. Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.”
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