Paramount Merger Gives Skydance One-Third of Digital News
Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery closed Tuesday, placing CBS News and CNN under one corporate owner and raising concerns about how much influence a single company will wield over American news coverage.
The deal, which creates a company renamed Skydance, combines the CBS broadcast network with CNN’s cable and digital operations. It also joins Paramount+, HBO Max, Pluto TV, major film studios and more than 20 prominent cable channels.
One measure shows the scale of the company’s digital-news reach. According to Comscore figures for the second quarter of 2026, CBS News and CNN together accounted for nearly 30 percent of all digital minutes consumed across five major national television-news brands: Fox News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and ABC News. They also generated slightly more than 30 percent of those organizations’ combined digital views, giving Skydance control of nearly one-third of digital news consumption among the five outlets.
The figures, published by Fox News from Comscore’s Media Metrix reporting, has critics saying the concentration deserves scrutiny.
“Paramount’s ownership of both CBS and CNN would also allow the company to control content at two major television news outlets at a time when news consumption is increasingly concentrated in national media,” New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said when 12 states sued to stop the acquisition.
Some conservatives agreed. Chris Bray of The Federalist called the settlement “a dreadful agreement” and argued that its editorial board creates government monitoring of CBS News and CNN, raising First Amendment concerns. He nevertheless defended the merger itself.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned that the merger would mean “fewer journalists informing the electorate.” Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, said the merger would “gravely threaten the freedom of the press.”
Paramount rejected claims that the transaction would harm competition, arguing that greater scale is necessary to challenge Netflix, Amazon, Apple and other technology companies.
The states eventually settled their lawsuit. The agreement requires Skydance to establish a five-member News Editorial Independence Board overseeing CNN and CBS News. Both CNN and CBS have paid out hundreds of millions in settlements over false news reporting.
David Ellison, Skydance’s chairman and CEO, told CNN employees the company “will never interfere” in its journalism. CNN chief Mark Thompson and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will remain in place.
Free Press co-CEO Jessica González remains unconvinced, calling the settlement “nothing but unenforceable, empty Paramount promises.”
In his 193 book, The Media Monopoly, author Ben Bagdikian found that 50 different corporations dominated American newspapers, magazines, television, books and movies at the time. By the time his updated list was compiled in 2004, Bagdikian found that number had fallen to just five. In 2026, the number is just four. It includes The Walt Disney Company (the largest, incorporating ABC Television/news, Disney+, Hulu, 72% of ESPN and many others), Comcast/NBCUniversal, Skydance (with the new merger) and the smallest, Fox Corporation (the only company that is described as conservative).
–Metro Voice staff and wire services
