Paramount Global unveiled its first quarterly earnings since the $8 billion merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media closed in August, spotlighting a 17% year-over-year leap in direct-to-consumer revenue—almost entirely powered by the Paramount+ streaming platform.
The surge marked a bright spot in an otherwise flat pro forma top line of $6.7 billion, as legacy TV Media revenues sank 12% amid cord-cutting pressures and shifting ad markets. Under Ellison’s aggressive leadership, the company also escalated its cost-cutting crusade, lifting annual savings targets from $2 billion to at least $3 billion while slashing roughly 2,000 jobs to purge redundancies and obsolete roles.
Q3 Financial Breakdown
- Total revenue: $6.7 billion (unchanged YoY on pro forma basis)
- Direct-to-consumer segment: +17%, driven by Paramount+ subscriber growth and pricing gains
- TV Media segment: -12%, reflecting linear network declines
- Paramount+ global subscribers: 79.1 million (up from prior quarters)
- Full-year 2026 revenue guidance: $30 billion
Since taking the reins, David Ellison has moved with startup speed inside a century-old studio. Within days of the merger’s closure, Paramount inked a blockbuster $7.7 billion, seven-year exclusive U.S. media rights deal with TKO Group Holdings for Ultimate Fighting Championship events, starting in 2026. The pact positions Paramount+ as a live-sports destination and secures high-value content for linear channels like CBS Sports.
The Wall Street Journal reported Paramount submitted three separate takeover proposals for Warner Bros. Discovery, each rebuffed by the David Zaslav-led board. A successful bid would fuse Paramount’s studio and Paramount+ with Warner’s legendary film library, HBO Max (soon to rebrand under a new moniker), and cable stalwarts like CNN, TBS, and TNT—creating a colossus capable of rivaling Disney and Netflix in both scale and content depth. While talks remain stalled, insiders suggest Ellison has not abandoned the pursuit.