What's going on: Paramount and Warner Bros. Discoveryare no more. After months of negotiations and antitrust lawsuits, the two Hollywood giants merged for a cool $110 billion to become Skydance. The media company includes Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., HBO Max, CBS News, CNN, Nickelodeon, the DC Universe, and much more — from Succession to Spongebob Squarepants, almost certainly including some of your favorite shows. Skydance is now on par with Netflix and YouTube, but still smaller than Amazon and Disney. In a 1,705-word memo to employees with the subject line “Day 1,” co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz pledged to “take on some of the largest technology and media companies in the world” and acknowledged upcoming layoffs. The cuts will likely affect corporate employees — and thousands of production jobs, as one Los Angeles County report found.
Viewerswill see changes, too: Skydance said it’ll merge HBO Max and Paramount Plus into a single streamer (hasn’t HBO Max been through enough name changes?), which analysts say will likely lead to higher streaming prices. As for what happens to your favorite shows, it may depend on how profitable they are: Skydance has $80 billion in debt, and previous mergers have led to show cancellations. Critics also worry about CNN’s journalistic independence, although Skydance agreed to set up an “Editorial Independence Board” ahead of the deal. The future of creative freedom is up in the air as well. Janet Grillo, a professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a former executive at New Line Cinema, told CNN: “How are monopolies ever good for any industry? They squeeze out competition. They squeeze out innovation. They limit growth.”
