Paramount Skydance Corporation has settled an antitrust lawsuit brought by a dozen state attorneys led by California’s Rob Bonta, the last obstacle to closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
From Deadline:
Done! Paramount Settles Antitrust Suit, Set To Seal Deal For Warner Bros. Discovery
UPDATED with more details: Paramount has settled an antitrust lawsuit brought by a dozen state attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta, the last obstacle to closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Deadline has confirmed.
Specifics are still scant but will come when the deal is formally announced later this morning. [...] There will be concessions. Deadline hears that Paramount has agreed to some CNN guardrails, financial penalties linked to CEO David Ellison‘s 30 movies a year commitment, and some sort of separation of the studios for a period.
Terms of the deal are said to include an investment of $1.5 billion for home-grown film production and protecting and creating jobs, along with requirements for additional domestic production if the federal government approves tax incentives. The settlement also provides for a $47.5 million workforce development fund and obligation to honor existing collective bargaining agreements.
A report in the Wall Street Journal said the company will not have to sell cable networks.
News of settlement talks began trickling out on Friday but four of the AGs in the group were subsequently described as holding out for more concessions from Paramount. The attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Minnesota and Nevada came around late Sunday, sources tell Deadline, after assurances from California’s Bonta that he would hold Paramount’s “feet to the fire” to ensure the company stuck to its commitments. He had said previously he preferred structural remedies like asset sales to resolve antitrust issues, rather than behavioral remedies, which require monitoring.
Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been advocating for a settlement publicly over the past month, was in “constant contact” with the parties as talks ebbed and flowed over the weekend. Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, is very much aware of the harsh backlash to a potential settlement that erupted among Congressional Democrats, A-listers like Mark Ruffalo and others as deal talks accelerated. In light of that, the governor is said to have cautioned both sides to find terms that addressed “core concerns” for Hollywood and the state.
“It’s jobs, job, jobs, that’s what this all about,” a source close to power players in Sacramento told Deadline.
Of course, with $6 billion in cost savings promised to investors, expectations remain for significant layoffs, though those details will become more clear in the coming days and weeks.
Paramount shares rose 9% on the news. WBD gained 10%, trading at about $30.50. The deal calls for Paramount to take out Warner stockholders for $31 a share.
The road here has been a long one marked by a tidal wave of industry opposition, a bruising legal fight, and threats by Paramount CEO David Ellison to exit Hollywood and relocate Paramount to another state. Frontrunners Texas and Tennessee will not, it turns out, be hosting a major film and TV studio.
The AGs filed their antitrust lawsuit in July, a month after the U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger, and the judge in the case set a March trial date. The two sides were scheduled to meet at a court-ordered settlement conference in mid-October but Paramount was very eager to reach a deal before Oct. 1, the start of a $7 million-a-day (25 cents per share per quarter) payout the company would owe Warner if the deal had not closed. Called a ticking fee, it’s a rarely used sweetener in M&A that Par employed to convince WBD’s board of directors to accept its offer, and that might have cost it close to $2 billion.
Bonta had asked for structural remedies that were hard for Ellison to accept. But he and his team came to the table recently with ideas and things began to move.
Deal in Flux
Paramount announced in February it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WBD in a deal that valued WBD at $81 billion in equity value and $110 billion in enterprise value. The transaction was funded by $47 billion in equity and $54 billion in debt syndicated out by a consortium of banks and institutions. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, David’s father, personally guaranteed the bulk of the equity portion.
The merger moved from the DOJ through approvals by the EU, the U.K. and other territories. David Ellison continued to anticipate a close in the third quarter of 2026.
But the AGs lawsuit stopped things cold. It called out alleged antitrust violations in three markets – cable programming, wide release films, and blockbuster films and won a temporary restraining order early on. Paramount agreed not to close the deal while the case was in play.
The WGA also sued to block the merger, with its case running alongside the States.
A public relations battle commenced with Paramount insisting the combination would revitalize the entertainment sector. A wide range of industry players disagreed, predicting massive job losses, especially given combined company’s projected $80 billion debt load. But pressure had also ratcheted up on Bonta to settle as Paramount continued to threaten a Hollywood exit and the risk of two major players in limbo through the spring posed its own risks.
The Chase
Ellison, 43, has amassed a media empire in record time. He launched his aggressive pursuit of WBD shortly after his Skydance Media closed an $8 billion acquisition of Paramount, buying Shari Redstone’s controlling stake in another twisty chase. He started with an escalating series of hostile bids for WBD that were rejected by its board and CEO David Zaslav, but did push Warner to formally put itself up for sale. Several other suitors stepped up. In December of 2025, Warner announced a deal to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix.
Undeterred, Ellison continued to sweeten the terms of his offer. Ultimately, WBD ditched Netflix and in favor of a richer Paramount deal for the entire company. The giant streamer declined to counter, instead walking away with a $2.8 billion breakup fee.
Larry Ellison has been a friend and was major donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He was also the biggest investor in Skydance. To secure FCC approval for the Paramount deal, the David Ellison company pledged to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and establish a CBS News ombudsman position to review bias complaints. He installed Barry Weiss, the polarizing founder of website The Free Press, to run CBS News, all of which sparked fears of similar shakeup at CNN if the deal went through.
The Paramount-AG settlement follows one final approval, from the Federal Communications Commission, On Sept. 17. The agency waived a Congressionally mandated 25% cap on foreign broadcast ownership to allow a trio of Middle East sovereign wealth funds, from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to own 49.5% of the merged company. They stepped in as investors with a backstop by Larry Ellison. Paramount said the funds will hold non-voting stock and have no say in governance, operating or content decisions.
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From Deadline:
Watch California AG Rob Bonta’s News Conference On Paramount Settlement Agreement Live
UPDATED with news conference over: California Attorney General Rob Bonta has just wrapped a news conference where he revealed details of the settlement agreement between Paramount and 12 state attorneys general over the pending $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.Bonta has just arrived and the newser is underway.
Under the agreement, Bonta announced that Paramount is legally required to distribute at least 30 movies in theaters annually and will face a financial penalty if it fails to do so.
The company also committed to spending an additional $1.5 billion on film production over the next five years, with a guaranteed increase in the proportion of movies produced within the U.S., specifically benefiting Hollywood, according to Bonta.
Additionally, Paramount agreed to establish an independent board of journalists to oversee the newsrooms of CNN and CBS News to preserve editorial integrity and prevent consolidated corporate bias, Bonta said.
The road to a resolution has been fraught. Bonta abruptly canceled a negotiation session with Paramount in late August after potential deal terms leaked. Talks restarted but tensions mounted over the nearing October 1 deadline for a $7 million a day ticking fee to WBD shareholders as the merger remained on hold.
Tensions rose as Paramount CEO David Ellison threatened to move Paramount out of California if the state didn’t ditch its effort to block the pending merger.
Four of the 12 attorneys general that took the David Ellison-run company to federal court recently broke with the Bonta-led faction that wanted to put the dispute to rest, at least for the time being. Along with the Golden State, the blue state coalition that sued Paramount and WBD back on July 13 is made up of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.
Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery announced in February a formal agreement to merge. It came after WBD jilted Netflix, saying it received a Superior Proposal from the David Ellison company.
The Paramount-WBD suit was set for trial in March.
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From Deadline:
Paramount Settlement Terms Laid Out By CA AG Rob Bonta, Who Says Deal Is “Not A Blessing” Of WBD Merger
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has revealed terms of a settlement with Paramount allowing it to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, stressing that the agreement is “not a blessing” of the mega-merger.
Speaking at a news conference Monday, Bonta detailed a list of items to which Paramount is committed. The list ranges from stepped-up film production in the U.S., an editorial oversight board for CNN and CBS News, commitments to theatrical releases and more. Not on the list, surprisingly, were any structural remedies. Repeatedly, Bonta has emphasized that only structural, not behavioral, remedies would be deemed acceptable by the AGs.
The closest thing to a structural remedy is a requirement in the consent decree that the companies negotiate pay-TV deals as separate companies. If they fail to adhere to that provision during the 5-year span of the agreement, they can be forced to sell off cable networks as punishment.
California and 11 other states sued in July to block the deal on antitrust grounds, as did the Writers Guild of America. The agreement announced Monday addresses both suits and removes the final hurdle for Paramount as it looks to close the $111 billion transaction, which will transform Hollywood and join together two century-old studio operations.
“This settlement is not a vote of support for this merger,” Bonta said. “It is not a blessing for the broader merger … which doesn’t serve the economy or consumers well.” Later, the official added more bluntly, “I don’t think these companies should merge.” He noted several high-profile transactions his office has thwarted, including the merger of supermarket chains Kroger and Albertsons and airlines Spirit and JetBlue.
Outweighing that sentiment, he added, was the conviction that he works for the people of California and had an obligation to help their situation. “I’d rather resolve the case in the boardroom rather than the courtroom, and that’s what happened here,” he said.
The combined company, which Bonta said currently produces just 5% of its projects in the U.S., has pledged to spend $1.5 billion more over five years on shoots in the U.S. It will raise the share of domestic production to 20% if the U.S. passes an uncapped federal tax incentive plan for film and TV production, and if California or New York pass uncapped state tax plans the number would hit 40%.
Mirroring oft-repeated promises by Paramount CEO David Ellison in recent months, the company has agreed to produce 30 theatrical releases in the first two years, with that number rising to 32 films over the next three years.
Bonta called the arrangement “the opposite of Disney-Fox,” and a framework that “locks in a massive upside.” Since the Disney-Fox deal closed in 2018, as many Paramount-WBD deal opponents have noted, the film output and workforce at 20th Century Studios has declined markedly.
At least four of the films must be independent films and 20% must be blockbusters. (The former was left undefined, while the latter was specified as films costing at least $50 million.)
Paramount must also establish a $5 million independent film fund and pay $9.5M annually for workforce training. It also will establish a news editorial independence board “to assure independent fact-based reporting” at CNN, Bonta said. Recent overtures to Donald Trump by Ellison and his father, billionaire Larry Ellison, have raised concerns that the extensive makeover of CBS News and signature shows like 60 Minutes would be replicated at CNN – or even that the two would be completely melded together.
While the settlement provides some influx of funding and support for the entertainment industry in California, preserves two fabled Hollywood lots and prevents Paramount from making good on threats to leave the state, the ultimate impact on jobs remains unclear.
The company has promised to deliver $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is likely to entail significant layoffs. A study by the L.A. County Economic Development Corp. estimates that at least 4,000 jobs could be lost – though there have been mounting worries about the limbo state persisting given the industry’s many challenges. A trial in the antitrust case had been set for March 2027, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, presumptive Newsom successor Xavier Becerra, as well as Hollywood unions, major exhibitors, media CEOs and other have publicly called for a settlement.
Bonta’s comments represent only the states’ part of the story. Despite the specifics offered up by the attorney general, there are many details to be filled in on the corporate side of the deal. The same company will find itself with two studios, two large-scale news operations and two general entertainment streaming services, among other assets, and an extensive org chart to overhaul. It is expected that the deal will formally close within the next couple of days, especially given that Paramount will owe a $7-million-a-day “ticking fee” starting October 1.
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From Deadline:
David Ellison Says “We Have Complete Clearance For This Merger” After Settlement With State AGs Over Paramount WBD
It wasn’t quick, it wasn’t pretty, but Paramount‘s David Ellison got to where he wanted, an acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by October 1 when a costly ticking fee was to come into effect.
While California Attorney General Bonta was still making the announcement of the anti-trust lawsuit being settled, laying out its terms, Ellison, Chairman & CEO, Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, issued a statement thanking Bonta, his fellow AGs as well as the WGA, which also had taken the company to court over the proposed merger, “for engaging in good faith to find a path forward to a resolution that serves all parties,” also acknowledging California Governor Newsom “for his support throughout this process.”
The WGA is yet to comment on the settlement, with Ellison confirming that both cases have been resolved. He also confirms Newsom’s rumored active behind-the-scenes role in the final stretch, especially after a breakthrough in the stalemate between the two sides was reached on Friday.
Ellison also addressed the main points in the consent degree unveiled by Bonta, which involves a commitment to a minimum of 30 movies a year for the next two years and 32 movies for the next three years. Each year, at least four of those films must be independent films, and at least 20% must be blockbusters.
“Having now addressed the State AGs’ and WGA’s concerns, we have complete clearance for this merger and look forward to putting these commitments into action,” Ellison said. “Bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery together will build that stronger Hollywood, creating expanded opportunity for our people and even more great entertainment for audiences around the world.”
Here is his full statement:
We are grateful to Attorney General Bonta and his fellow AGs, as well as the WGA, for engaging in good faith to find a path forward to a resolution that serves all parties, and to Governor Newsom for his support throughout this process. Our shared aim was an outcome that best serves consumers, workers and — most importantly — the creative community so vital to the art of visual storytelling. We’re confident this agreement does exactly that, memorializing a series of commitments that include 30+ films annually and expanded U.S. film production to help revitalize our industry here at home.
Our goal has always been to build a stronger Hollywood — one with more stories told, greater choice for consumers and stronger competition. That vision was validated by unanimous approval from competition authorities in nearly 70 jurisdictions worldwide, who agreed this deal is pro-competitive, pro-consumer and pro-worker. Having now addressed the State AGs’ and WGA’s concerns, we have complete clearance for this merger and look forward to putting these commitments into action. Bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery together will build that stronger Hollywood, creating expanded opportunity for our people and even more great entertainment for audiences around the world.
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From Deadline:
Read The Proposed Consent Decree To Settle The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Merger
As entertainment figures and politicos weigh in on the settlement of the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the parties submitted details of a consent decree for a judge’s approval.
Among other things, the five-year decree requires a minimum number of annual film releases and another to spend $300 million more on domestic U.S. film production than was spent in 2025. It also sets levels of U.S. film production if Congress establishes a federal film tax credit. If there is a breach, one remedy is to divest the company interest in Miramax.
Restrictions also were placed on affiliate fee negotiations for cable channels, and requirements for negotiating separately. If there is a breach, Paramount may be on the hook to divest channels including BET, VH-1, Comedy Central, Smithsonian, Destination America and Science.
The consent decree also sets up a news editorial independence board to oversee CBS News and CNN, including establishing a set of standards and principles.
The decree also requires Paramount to continue the operation of its lot and that of Warner Bros.
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From Deadline:
WGA Gets No Writer Layoffs At CBS News, $17.5M For Health Fund As Guild Confirms Settlement Of Lawsuit Against Paramount-WBD Merger
The WGA has confirmed that its own lawsuit over the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger also has been settled, following the same move by the 12 state attorneys general announced Monday morning by California AG Rob Bonta. In a statement, the guild acknowledged that it could not go it alone.
“We continue to believe the merger will cause damage to writers and the industry at large,” WGA said. “Now that the Attorneys General have settled with Paramount, however, as a nonprofit, the WGA must contend with the reality of forging ahead alone, with no backing from government enforcers, with a complex antitrust lawsuit that would cost millions of dollars to pursue through trial.”
“Consequently, we have also settled our lawsuit with an agreement from Paramount to prohibit writer layoffs at CBS News Broadcast for 5 years, and to pay $17.5 million to our health fund along with our attorneys’ fees in the litigation,” the guild said.
The five-year term matches that of the provisions in the AGs’ settlement with Paramount.
While begrudgingly settling, the WGA vowed to keep up the fight, focusing on a reinstatement of fin-syn rules for the streaming era.
“As the number of outlets to sell our work to and the corresponding diversity of programming shrinks, we need industry-wide structural separation between streamers and studios in order to promote competition in programming, like the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules once required in broadcast television. We will continue to fight for these goals.”
You can read the full statement below.
During his press conference, Bonta was asked to address the WGA litigation.
“That’s a separate lawsuit with a separate resolution, they sued on their own, of course, adjacent to us,” he said. “We’re grateful that they sued alongside us and stood up for their principles and their convictions, and they had their own pathway to a resolution. But it’s resolved as well.”
Bonta said he believed the WGA settlement, like their own, was reached over the weekend but stressed that “they made their own decisions about their own case, independent.”
“We were never in the same room. They had their own discussions; there was some opportunities for information sharing between the Writers Guild and the states, but they brought their own case,” he said during Monday’s press conference in Los Angeles. “They decided whether or not they wanted to resolve their case and on what terms. And they decided in the end that they would resolve their case.”
While both lawsuits were brought on antitrust grounds, the WGA focused heavily in its own suit about the impact that the merger would have on workers. Just last week, a report commissioned by the Los Angeles County supervisors warned that the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger would erase another 4,500 jobs in the area. That’s after years of production decline that has led to plummeting work opportunities already domestically.
Bonta and the state AGs addressed some of these concerns as well in their own settlement, ensuring a financial penalty if the combined company fails to meet its theatrical release commitments that would largely be split among the major entertainment unions and the California Film and Television Fund.
“This agreement is the opposite of Disney-Fox,” Bonta told reporters, invoking a deal that contributed to a massive wave of consolidation and reduced competition among the major film and TV studios. “The things that we saw in the Disney-Fox merger: a massive decrease in film production, in film output, less films being made. This doesn’t just guard against that and protect against the downside. It locks in a massive upside: 30 films per year for two years, 32 films per year for the next three, with requirements, of course, about what kind of films those are.”
There is a $30 million penalty if Paramount does not meet the goals on movie volume and additional investment of $500 million a year into film production.
“50% of the $30 million, 15 million, will go to the health and retirement trust funds for the Hollywood labor unions, IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, DGA, WGA, the Teamsters; they will have 15 million dollars more in their in their funds,” Bonta said. “Then $12 million of it, 40% of the 30 million, will go to the California Film and Television Fund that supports out of work workers in the entertainment industry. So more money for workers — that’s 90% — and then the final $3 million, 10%, will go to a bipartisan national attorneys general fund to support ongoing antitrust enforcement.”
In addition to $30 million fee, the new Paramount-Warner Bros. would be legally required to divest from Miramax if the film production requirements aren’t met.
“This settlement centers on workers, thinks about workers [and] their future,” he said, adding later: “I think with this agreement and the commitments of Paramount to have its headquarters here and be here, there is a very bright future for production, job creation, for workers, for the economy here in California, here in LA, and also across the country.”
It’s worth noting that, while Paramount and Warner Bros. did contractually commit to keeping their famed studio lots in Hollywood, there is only a verbal commitment from the companies and from Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison for the studio headquarters to remain in the Golden State, too.
Here is WGA’s statement.
We continue to believe the merger will cause damage to writers and the industry at large. Now that the Attorneys General have settled with Paramount, however, as a nonprofit, the WGA must contend with the reality of forging ahead alone, with no backing from government enforcers, with a complex antitrust lawsuit that would cost millions of dollars to pursue through trial.
Consequently, we have also settled our lawsuit with an agreement from Paramount to prohibit writer layoffs at CBS News Broadcast for 5 years, and to pay $17.5 million to our health fund along with our attorneys’ fees in the litigation.
Though we were not successful in blocking the merger, our advocacy brought more attention to the harms that this merger—and others like it—will cause. We will continue to fight the harms of industry consolidation.
“\As the number of outlets to sell our work to and the corresponding diversity of programming shrinks, we need industry-wide structural separation between streamers and studios in order to promote competition in programming, like the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules once required in broadcast television. We will continue to fight for these goals.
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From Deadline:
David Ellison Hopes To Close Paramount-WBD Deal “In Approximately Two Weeks” As He Hails Legal Settlement In Company Memo
Paramount CEO David Ellison said Monday’s settlement of two lawsuits aimed at blocking the company’s pending merger with Warner Bros. Discovery represents “an exciting moment for our company and our industry.”
However, he added in a memo to employees, there is “still work ahead to get this deal across the finish line.” The tentative forecast, he added, is that it will close in the next two weeks. (Read the full memo below.)
Ellison addressed the troops just after a landmark settlement with attorneys general of 12 states, who had sued alongside the Writers Guild of America, with each calling the merger illegal under antitrust law. The 5-year consent decree reached with the states and largely matched in WGA talks will require Paramount to make a few concessions, but it does not include any structural remedies or asset sales. The $111 billion merger will bring two storied studios under one roof, and will blend CBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount+ with HBO, CNN and HBO Max.
While Monday’s Yom Kippur holiday was not observed by the stock market, many in the media and entertainment business were attempting to stay offline during the Jewish high holy day. That left California AG Rob Bonta as the main voice speaking publicly about the deal, though waves of new comment and information are expected over the next couple of days ahead of the formal close. Bonta laid out terms of the consent decree, taking pains to say it was “not a blessing” of the mega-merger.
Here is Ellison’s full memo:
Team,
Just a few moments ago, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, on behalf of himself and 11 other State AGs, announced a settlement that clears the path forward on the lawsuit blocking our merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. We have also reached a settlement with the Writers Guild of America.
With both groups’ concerns now addressed, we have complete clearance for this merger and can move toward closing. There’s still work ahead to get this deal across the finish line, but we’re excited to bring these two iconic companies together, as it means more opportunity for our creatives, production crews and employees across the business, and more great entertainment for audiences everywhere.
We’re grateful to Attorney General Bonta and his fellow AGs, and to the WGA, for engaging in good faith to reach this resolution. The agreement includes a number of commitments, including 30+ films annually and expanded U.S. film production – meant to help revitalize our industry and support the people behind it, here at home. Since we launched this bid, our goal has been to build a stronger Hollywood: more stories told, greater choice for consumers, stronger competition. Combining these companies gives us the opportunity to do just that.
This is an exciting moment for our company and our industry. If you’re like me, you’re in this business because you love the art of visual storytelling – the chance to entertain, unite and inspire the world through extraordinary stories. Together, Paramount and WBD can do more of that, for audiences everywhere. And we can’t wait to get started.
I know you have questions about what happens next – your role, your team and how we will work day to day. We don’t have all the answers yet, and I won’t pretend otherwise. We are tentatively planning to close in approximately two weeks. That said, closing is really just the starting line. Bringing two companies this size together takes time, and we’ll share information as it becomes available.
Thank you for your patience, commitment and hard work throughout this process. I know it’s created real uncertainty, and for some of you, real anxiety – that’s not lost on me. Our people are what make this company one of the best in the world, and I’m truly grateful for your dedication and support. I’m confident we’re going to build something special together in the years ahead.
Let’s go!
David
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From Deadline:
Paramount-WBD Settlement Sets Up Editorial Independence Board For CNN And CBS News
UPDATED: The potential ownership of CBS News and CNN under one corporate owner has generated months of fear, anxiety and loathing at both networks, but the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery settlement tries to resolve some of the issues with the establishment of an editorial independence board.
Per the terms of the consent decree reached with a dozen state attorneys general, the board will establish a set of guiding principles based on each network’s policies for “accuracy, independence, fairness and journalistic integrity.” The board will resolve any disputes between CBS News employees, CNN employees and management regarding any alleged violations of the principles. And it will monitor “adherence to ethical journalism as defined by journalism industry best practices and to editorial independence.”
The decree also sets up who can serve on the body, made up of five retired or active journalists who have worked for a minimum of ten years, and who will be appointed by the combined Paramount-WB board. No more than two members may be affiliated with the same political party.
“No member of any government or governmental entity, including federal, state, and local governments, may approve or have approval rights over members appointed to the Editorial Independence Board,” per the decree. Officers, directors or non-journalist employees of Paramount-WB also are restricted from serving on the board, whose members will have terms of three years. Paramount would have 180 days to establish the board.
A separate settlement with the Writers Guild of America includes a provision prohibiting writer layoffs at CBS News broadcast for five years, the guild said.
What the AGs’ consent decree does not do is restrict a combination of CBS News and CNN. Nor does it give the board oversight over who runs the respective news entities, something that has been an issue as CEO David Ellison tapped Bari Weiss to lead CBS News after Skydance’s purchase of Paramount last year.
That has raised concerns that the network would be steered rightward, or even in a direction more favorable to Donald Trump. Weiss previously worked as an opinion writer for The New York Times and founded The Free Press, the center-right opinion and analysis site that Paramount also purchased. As part of her changes, she ousted the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while some of the correspondents who were fired have alleged politically motivated interference. Weiss has defended her input to the show, saying it is part of the news process.
As part of commitments to close its purchase of Paramount last year, Skydance said that it would install an ombudsman to take complaints over CBS News. The person they hired, Kenneth Weinstein, was not a journalist but the former head of the rightward Hudson Institute.
Other actions have triggered further suspicions, including that, like CBS News, changes would be afoot for CNN, including appointing Weiss to oversee that network as well. As he sought administration approval to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery this year, Ellison hosted a dinner for the Trump White House tied to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and he appeared at the president’s State of the Union address.
Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, said that the “editorial independence protections included in this settlement remain untested, and there is good reason to be skeptical they will hold up once the ink is dry. Whether these commitments actually protect newsrooms inside CBS and CNN from political, financial, or regulatory pressure, or simply provide cover for further editorial interference, remains to be seen.”
Seth Stern, chief of advocacy of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, called the consent decree’s oversight board “worthless.”
He said in a statement, “It’s unclear how the attorneys general or courts can constitutionally hold Paramount accountable for the board’s actions or inaction without themselves interfering in content. The attorneys general might be fine with censorship when they’re the ones doing it, but what happens when successors with opposing political views inherit enforcement powers?”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the state AG lawsuit, told reporters that the independent board would “ensure independent, objective, fact-based reporting at CBS News and at CNN.”
An independent board is unusual, not not unprecedented. A special committee was set up in 2007 to oversee editorial integrity at the Wall Street Journal, as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was looking to acquire the news outlet from the Bancroft family trust. The committee, though, does have a say in major newsroom positions, as it has to grant approval for the appointments of an editor-in-chief and editorial page editor. Comcast committed to an ombudsman when it acquired NBC Universal, with concerns over corporate interference in the editorial process. David McCormick, vice president of standards at NBC News, had already been serving as ombudsman in 1993, and expanded his duties to other NBCU news properties.
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From Deadline:
The Final Stretch: California AG Rob Bonta On How Settlement On Paramount-WBD Merger Came Together After Stalemate
Paramount‘s settlement with the 12 Democratic state attorneys general appeared to be a Yom Kippur affair, with the final signoff coming after sundown on Sunday.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta was cagey when asked about the exact timeline for the agreement following his Monday morning press conference announcing the deal but when he was cheekily asked by a reporter whether he had brushed his teeth yet by the time all was said and done, he responded with, “I can affirmatively say yes.”
“You get to a place in some of these negotiations where you get to 90% maybe 95%, maybe even 99%, and then the last part is often the hardest part,” Bonta added. “Something comes up, something unexpected; you make a lot of progress, then it goes slow, there’s a hiccup — and that was not proven wrong here either.”
When pressed further on the timeline, Bonta confirmed what had been rumored.
“We have made a lot of progress over the last week,” he said. “I don’t have percentages for you, but there were components that were not locked in that needed to get locked in till the very end.”
After months of sabre-rattling that was on its way to the Supreme Court, negotiations between the two sides picked up last week and carried on over the weekend after, as one person with knowledge of the situation told Deadline, the process got “unstuck.”
Bonta acknowledged California Gov. Gavin Newson in his opening remarks about the settlement but would not comment how involved he was in the final stretch. Newsom stayed closed to the situation in the last week, and many think that he applied pressure on the California AG to pursue a settlement.
Reports emerged over the two months that Newsom would like to see a settlement deal struck between the AGs and defendants Paramount and Warner Bros rather than the whole affair heading to trial. He didn’t take an official position until August, when he expressed concerns but ultimately pushed for both sides to reach a deal outside of court.
Newsom got heat from Mark Ruffalo, a staunch critic of the merger, who blamed him specifically for delivering “a huge win to Trump and his billionaire cronies.”
At the presser Monday, Bonta assured that this deal was a win, but he conceded that the state leaders still ultimately believe the merger should not happen.
Ellison indicated separately on Monday that the deal will likely be finalized in the next two weeks.
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From Deadline:
Paramount To Keep Headquarters In Los Angeles Post-Merger: “We Aren’t Going Anywhere”
Paramount is not leaving California — at least not anytime soon — and that includes both the company’s studio lot(s) and headquarters.
The settlement of the anti-trust lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general calls for the Paramount, which is set to acquire WBD shortly, to keep both the Paramount lot on Melrose and the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank for the next five years.
“We wanted those lots to be protected, they are part of the the broader solution, and I believe that the future of this merged company is in Los Angeles for many years to come for the foreseeable future,” California AG Rob Bonta said during his press conference about the settlement Monday morning.
Bonta was asked about the status of the Paramount headquarters, currently located in Los Angeles.
“I believe that will be the case, that they will have their headquarters in California for the foreseeable future,” he said, adding, “It’s not part of the deal, I believe there will be public statements.”
There had been no public statements on the matter, and the fact that Paramount maintaining its headquarters in California was not part of the agreement raised a few eyebrows. Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison did not address it in his official reaction to the settlement or in his company memo Monday, the latter of which noted the combined company’s commitment to producing 30+ movies a year and expanding U.S. film production.
Hours later, Ellison stepped in to clear the confusion.
“Let me be clear: the newly merged company will be headquartered in Los Angeles,” he said in a new statement. “We aren’t going anywhere. Our history is here and this is where our future is being built.”
This brings to an end weeks of tension that culminated in an alleged ultimatum that Paramount would move its headquarters to Tennessee, Texas or Georgia if the anti-trust lawsuit filed by the state AGs was not settled by October 1 when a costly ticking fee to WBD was set to kick in.
Per the settlement’s consent decree, the bulked up post-merger Paramount “shall not sell or close the Paramount or Warner Bros. Lots and shall use commercially reasonable efforts to operate the Lots in a manner consistent with past practices, including leasing use to third parties and producing films and television shows.”
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From The Hollywood Reporter:
Free Streamer Pluto TV Gets a Lifeline in Paramount-Warner Bros. Consent Decree
The settlement with state attorneys general says the combined company has to maintain the service for the five-year term of the deal.
The headline items — rightfully so — in the consent decree between Paramount and 12 states are an increased commitment to production in the United States, an “editorial independence board” for CBS News and CNN and the fact that the combined company will still have to negotiate as two separate entities for cable carriage fees.
Deeper into the document, though, is a carve-out for another piece of the Paramount empire: Pluto TV.
The free, ad-supported streaming service has been something of an afterthought in the abundance of discussion and negotiations about the megamerger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. It’s the only free streamer either of the two current companies currently operates, and because of that, Pluto received its own protections under the consent decree.
Specifically, for the five-year term of the settlement, “The [merged company] shall continue to maintain and make available a free, ad-supported streaming service under the Pluto TV brand or a successor or substantially equivalent replacement brand or service.” ParaBros is also obligated to maintain “service and quality levels at or above the service and quality for the service as provided” on the date the consent decree goes into effect.
In other words, the merged company will have to keep a free streaming service in its portfolio for at least five years after the deal closes and make an effort to keep Pluto TV (or a rebranded successor) viable.
Pluto offers live channels, a good-sized movie and TV library and after-air streaming of some CBS series. It’s among the larger free streaming services on the market, though its reach isn’t quite as wide as the Roku Channel and Tubi. Paramount+ and Pluto TV combined typically command about 2.2 percent of all TV use in the United States, based on figures from the monthly Nielsen Gauge reports. Pluto TV on its own hovers around 1 percent.
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Originally published: September 22, 2026.
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