Paramount and Warner Bros. Officially Merge: What’s Next for Skydance

October 6 marks Skydance’s first day as a new company

David Zaslav formally left his job yesterday, stepping down as Warner Bros. Discovery’s last CEO. That’s because Paramount Skydance, after vocal pushback from several courts of law, has finally closed its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery as of October 6. As we reported last week, the new company will simply be called Skydance.

This morning, the company’s stock ticker changed from PSKY to SKYD and workers were spotted repainting the iconic “WB” water tower with the Skydance name, so the change really is official. But there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered. Let’s go over what this corporate merger means for some of Skydance’s biggest brands.

What’s next for Skydance?

David Ellison, the mastermind behind the whole merger, is staying on as Skydance’s CEO. This comes at no surprise — this is just the next step in his plan to create a media empire. (He also reportedly gave himself a $5 million raise in the process). Ellison was the CEO of Skydance Media since he launched it as a production company in 2006, and oversaw the company’s acquisition of Paramount in 2025.

Ellison didn’t wait very long before setting his sights on another media giant: Warner Bros. Discovery. That’s the deal that just went through, creating a new company that he’s also calling “Skydance.” But this time, Ellison is bringing on some help to run the (some would say, overbloated) conglomerate.

Ynon Kreiz will serve as Skydance’s Co-CEO. Before today, Kreiz was the CEO at Mattel, which means he had a hand in Warner Bros.’s live-action “Barbie” film. With his successful track record and pre-existing relationship with Warner Bros., it’s easy to see how Kreiz was a natural fit to help Ellison with his company’s growing pains.

What’s next for DC?

DC Studios, Warner Bros.’s powerhouse superhero brand, has been in a weird reboot state for the past few years. The new creative direction is still in its infancy, having started with the 2025 “Superman” movie.

It looks like this merger will keep that new creative direction intact, rather than scrapping it for something else like some fans feared. James Gunn, the (formerly Marvel-aligned) director currently in charge of the DC films, will remain as Skydance’s Co-Chairman of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran.

Peter Safran was involved with DC Studios before the reboot (producing “Aquaman” and “Shazam!”), and has run DC Studios alongside James Gunn since 2022.

What’s next for Paramount+ and HBO Max?

Both Paramount+ and HBO Max now fall under Skydance’s Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) division, which is run by CCO Casey Bloys. Bloys has been in charge of HBO programming since 2016 (so you can probably at least partially blame him for all of those HBO Max rebrands).

But it’s unlikely that Paramount+ and HBO Max will remain separate services for very long. In fact, Skydance’s own press release states that its DTC streaming services will “unify into a single service over time.”

Of course, the next logical question you may have is about the service’s cost. Twice the content probably means twice the cost, right? But Skydance wants to make money; they don’t want to scare away existing subscribers by inflating their bills.

Some outlets have hypothesized that Skydance may keep its services separate but offer a bundle discount to subscribe together, which would solve the problem, but I think that contradicts what this new press release says. I think that Skydance will aim for a “sweet spot” price point instead, trying to remain competitive with Netflix and The Disney Bundle.

(Note, The Disney Bundle itself will not remain a bundle for very long, as Disney+ and Hulu are due to merge by the end of the year. Just another piece of evidence indicating that single services are the new vogue over bundles).

Last week, we conducted a couple of polls amongst our readers to figure out what that “sweet spot” price point could be. Check out our full writeup for more details.

What’s next for CNN and CBS News?

Both CNN Worldwide and CBS News fall under the same News division within Skydance, but each will have their own leadership.

Mark Thompson will continue as the Editor-in-Chief of CNN Worldwide. Thompson previously ran the BBC, where he set out to make the network, in his view, less biased against the Conservative Party, taking issue with how its journalists criticized former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He became the CEO of CNN in 2023 under David Zaslav’s leadership.

Bari Weiss will continue as the Editor-in-Chief of CBS News, a position she’s held since October 2025. She’s been known for her criticism of progressive viewpoints, and especially pushing back against women’s rights movements.

One of the chief concerns around the Skydance deal was the possible danger of letting one company manage two of America’s biggest news networks. To mitigate these concerns, a settlement with 12 U.S. states made Skydance promise to create a news ethics board.

The board must contain five journalists, and no two members can be a part of the same political party. Hypothetically, this board would prevent CNN and CBS News from becoming too biased in their reporting, as many feared when Ellison began creating his new media empire. (As we’ve reported in the past, President Donald Trump has backed Ellison’s deal from the beginning, leading some to wonder if it would benefit him and his party.)

It’s unclear right now whether this ethics board will succeed in its mission — especially with two conservative and somewhat controversial figures at the helm of each news network.

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