Skydance Takes Control of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, Installs New TV and Streaming Leadership

Skydance completed its approximately $110 billion combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, creating a media company spanning streaming, broadcast television, cable networks, local stations, news, sports and film. The combined business is now Skydance Corporation. Its shares are moving to the New York Stock Exchange, while the former Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery listings have been discontinued on Nasdaq.

David Ellison is chairman and chief executive officer, concentrating on long-term strategy, creative direction, technology, partnerships, talent relationships and capital allocation. Ynon Kreiz, previously chairman and CEO of Mattel, is co-CEO with responsibility for daily management and integration. Skydance President Andy Gordon will work with both executives and join them on the board.

The structure places George Cheeks and JB Perrette over a vast collection of television assets. Cheeks, formerly Paramount Global co-CEO and CBS CEO, becomes co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance TV. Perrette is co-chair and chief business officer of both Skydance TV and Skydance DTC, connecting the company’s linear-network and direct-to-consumer businesses. Their television portfolio includes Warner Bros. Television Studios, CBS Studios, Paramount Television Studios, the CBS Television Network, 27 local television stations and more than 50 cable networks, including HGTV, Food Network, TBS, TNT, Discovery, BET, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Casey Bloys, who led HBO and HBO Max programming, becomes co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance DTC. That appointment gives a Warner Bros. Discovery executive a central role in shaping the merged company’s streaming content, while Perrette provides business leadership across streaming and television.

News remains divided between Mark Thompson, chairman and editor-in-chief of CNN Worldwide, and Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News. In sports, CBS Sports President and CEO David Berson will lead the combined global operation, bringing CBS Sports and TNT Sports under one executive. TNT Sports Chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser is leaving.

Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein will co-chair the Skydance Motion Picture Group, while James Gunn and Peter Safran remain co-chairmen of DC Studios. Dennis Cinelli, Makan Delrahim, Dane Glasgow, Rebecca Mall and Melissa Zukerman take the chief financial, legal, product, marketing and communications posts. For viewers and distribution partners, the immediate change is centralized decision-making across services and networks that previously competed under Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.