The $8.4 billion merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media has received approval from the U.S. regulators. This deal will put well-known entertainment properties including the CBS broadcast television network, Paramount Pictures, and the Nickelodeon cable channel under the ownership of Skydance CEO David Ellison.
Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) regulators voted 2-1 along party lines to give the deal a green light. This comes amid allegations of political interference due to President Donald Trump’s intense criticism of Paramount’s CBS News division.
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Paramount’s owners-in-waiting agreed to hire an ombudsman at CBS and pledged not to implement any new DEI policies. These commitments were important for FCC Chair Brendan Carr.
“I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,” Carr said in a statement. He cited the company’s assurances about having programming with “a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.”
He also added, “Skydance will also adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media,” Carr continued. “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.”
Democrat Anna Gomez, the FCC’s dissenter, accused Paramount of “cowardly capitulation” to the Trump administration. She also said the FCC was imposing “never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions.”
Trump had previously attacked CBS news for what he viewed as “unfavorable coverage.” He had accused the media outlet of bias in its editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, and filed a lawsuit over it. He alleged that the editing was deliberately done to make Harris look good, Paramount had to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit.
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Democratic senators Ben Ray Luján and Ed Markey said in a joint statement that the FCC’s approval of the deal “reeks of the worst form of corruption.” They cited Trump’s assertion on Truth Social that the current and future owners of Paramount had made “over $36 million dollars” in commitments to him. While part of this could be the $16 million Paramount agreed to pay to settle the lawsuit, the rest is uncertain. The company and the FCC, both insisted that the payout was unrelated to the merger review process, while Democrats likened it to a bribe in exchange for approval.
Trump had said the future owners of Paramount promised millions of dollars-worth of public service announcements, which is how he arrived at the $36 million figure. The current owners denied any involvement with such a negotiation.