Paramount Skydance has completed its $110bn takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, placing CNN and CBS News under the same corporate owner and intensifying scrutiny over editorial independence at two of the most influential news organisations in the United States.
The deal, which includes debt, combines major entertainment assets including HBO, CBS, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Comedy Central, DC Studios and Food Network, as well as the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services.
But the merger’s biggest political and media implications centre on CNN and CBS News.
David Ellison, Skydance’s chairman and chief executive, has said both networks will remain editorially independent.
His father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is a major financial backer of the deal and has previously donated money to President Donald Trump and to Israel.
Trump welcomed the takeover on Tuesday.
“They’re terrific people, and it’s going to be a great company,” he said.
The merger followed months of opposition from unions, politicians and state attorneys general concerned about further consolidation in an already concentrated entertainment industry.
Netflix had initially agreed to buy part of Warner Bros Discovery before Paramount launched a rival bid, triggering a bidding battle that ended when Netflix withdrew.
A California-led coalition of 12 state attorneys general later sued to block the Paramount deal, arguing that it would weaken competition and increase prices.
The Writers Guild of America brought a separate challenge.
Both cases were settled in September after Paramount agreed to commitments covering film production, support for displaced workers and safeguards for the news divisions.
Those safeguards include the creation of a new editorial independence board.
Opposition to the merger has nevertheless continued.
“This merger will stifle creativity, weaken free speech and cost people their jobs,” actor and activist Mark Ruffalo said.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren also linked the takeover to wider concerns over media access under the Trump administration.
“As Trump tries to ban CNN from the White House, it would be a massive mistake to cave on the Paramount merger,” Warren said.
Under the settlement, Skydance must establish a five-member “News Editorial Independence Board” within 180 days of completing the takeover.
Its members must be active or retired journalists with at least 10 years of experience.
The board is intended to set editorial principles and handle disputes between the newsrooms and corporate management.
But critics have questioned whether the body will be genuinely independent.
Its members will be appointed by Skydance’s board of directors, which Ellison chairs, and will report back to that same board.
Up to two members may be affiliated with the same political party, and Skydance will not be required to publish its findings.
Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, dismissed the arrangement.
“A Paramount-appointed editorial independence board for CNN and CBS is worthless. The fish rots from the head, and this particular fish is headed by a compromised oligarch with a history of throwing journalists under the bus to advance his business interests,” Stern said.
He also warned that government enforcement of the settlement could itself raise First Amendment concerns.
“The editorial board creates the same First Amendment problems it’s supposed to solve – the government meddling in the news.”
Ellison has rejected concerns that the takeover will undermine the networks.
“We’re going to make sure that CNN and CBS News are completely editorially independent,” he said on Tuesday.
Skydance also confirmed on Monday that Mark Thompson will remain CNN’s chairman and editor-in-chief, while Bari Weiss will continue as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
The appointments eased immediate speculation that Weiss could be given control of both networks.
Concerns over CNN’s future have been heightened by the timing of the takeover, which comes less than a month before the November 3 midterm elections and amid repeated attacks on the network by Trump.
Shortly after Paramount launched its bid in December, Trump accused CNN of spreading “poison and lies” and said it was “imperative” that the network be sold.
His administration has also sought to restrict CNN’s access to parts of the White House.
Ellison donated about $45m to a political nonprofit supporting Trump’s 2024 election campaign.
He also donated $16.6m to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, then the largest single contribution received by the organisation.
Earlier this year, the White House criticised CNN’s coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the time that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also hold indirect financial interests in the combined company.
They do not have voting rights, but their involvement has added another layer of scrutiny over the ownership structure.
Questions around editorial independence had already intensified after Skydance acquired Paramount in 2025.
That takeover was followed by layoffs, the closure of CBS News Radio and changes at 60 Minutes.
High-profile departures under CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and Skydance Media CEO David Ellison included correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as well as 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon.
The programme’s September season premiere drew about 21 percent fewer viewers than a year earlier.
Paramount also agreed in 2025 to pay Trump $16m to settle a lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
In a June letter, nine advocacy groups including Reporters Without Borders, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Committee for the First Amendment warned that CNN could face similar disruption.
“Bari Weiss’ shameless actions fulfil the Ellisons’ commitment to President Trump to remake CBS to his liking,” the groups alleged.
“Larry Ellison has reportedly promised to do the same at CNN if allowed to take control through the pending Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Not because it makes any business sense, but because they seek to control the public discourse.”
The groups described the merger as an “existential threat to the free press, independent media, and free speech in this country and beyond”.
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