The pending merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media was formally approved by the Trump administration on Thursday, concluding months of regulatory uncertainty.
FCC commissioners voted 2-1 along party lines to give the $8 billion deal a green light. The approval means that Skydance can complete the deal and take control of Paramount in the coming weeks.
The usually lengthy merger review process was pockmarked by allegations of political interference stemming from President Trump’s scathing criticism of Paramount’s CBS News division.
In recent days Paramount’s owners-in-waiting, led by Skydance CEO David Ellison, agreed to hire an ombudsman at CBS and pledged not to implement any new DEI policies.
Those commitments, as well as pledges relating to local content, were crucial for FCC chair Brendan Carr, who once showcased his loyalty to Trump by wearing a gold lapel pin of the president’s head.
Carr moved to have his fellow commissioners vote on the matter on Thursday.
“I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,” Carr said in a statement. “In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum. Skydance will also adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media.”
“These commitments, if implemented, would enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage,” he added. “Doing so would begin the process of earning back Americans’ trust.”
Earlier this month Paramount agreed to pay $16 million toward Trump’s future presidential library to resolve the president’s legally dubious lawsuit against CBS News.
The company and the FCC both insisted that the payout was unrelated to the merger review process, even as some Democratic senators likened it to a “bribe” in exchange for approval.
Paramount-owned programs have been in the news on a daily basis in recent days, highlighting the beleaguered company’s enduring power in the media marketplace.
Last week CBS announced that its flagship late-night talk show, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” will end next May. The network said the cancellation was purely due to “financial” strains, not “other matters happening at Paramount,” meaning the pending merger.
Colbert has been making jokes about the network’s rationale on “The Late Show” ever since.
Jon Stewart, who hosts “The Daily Show” once a week on another Paramount-owned property, Comedy Central, lambasted the company on Monday and said he attributes the cancellation to Trump’s pressure campaign against the media.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
