Skydance Now a Major Player In Sports Media

Paramount closed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, creating Skydance and instantly making the combined company a major force in sports media.

The deal gives Skydance rights across nearly every major professional sport and league except the NBA, a portfolio rivaled in breadth mainly by ESPN. CBS Sports parent Paramount and TNT Sports parent Warner Bros. Discovery are now one company expected to reshape both sports media and Hollywood.

Skydance co-CEO and chair David Ellison prevailed after a year of corporate drama, legal friction, and several points of potential collapse. “Getting here has been quite a journey,” Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz wrote in a Tuesday memo to employees. “Bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery together fulfills a vision that began with Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount: to build the next-generation media and entertainment company, powered by creativity and technology.”

David Berson, previously CBS Sports CEO, will lead Skydance Sports. The choice was expected: his former boss, CBS president and CEO George Cheeks, is now co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance TV. Berson’s counterpart at Warner Bros. Discovery, Luis Silberwasser, is leaving.\