Paramount Skydance’s top executives aren’t looking to follow moves by NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery to spin off their company’s cable channels into a separate entity. That should not, however, be taken to mean that they’re just fine with the status quo.
“There’s no question that [cable is] a super challenging business,” George Cheeks, chairman of TV media at the newly merged company, said Wednesday during a media session with other members of Paramount Skydance’s C-suite. Cheeks, who was a co-CEO of Paramount and head of CBS prior to the merger, will continue to run the broadcast network while adding the company’s cable outlets to his portfolio.
With streaming taking a dominant position in TV use and cable numbers shrinking, Cheeks and Paramount Skydance president Jeff Shell both acknowledged to reporters that they’ll need to make some changes to the business model. Cheeks also noted that Paramount’s cable channels are home to a number of “iconic franchises” that will be continue to be valuable to the company. He didn’t name-check any particular property, but cable institutions like South Park, The Daily Show, SpongeBob SquarePants and Yellowstone all live on Paramount Skydance channels.
“We’re all seeing the pay cable business shift over to streaming, so there will be a lot of conversations about what iconic franchises we want to continue, maybe shift to streaming, etc.,” he said. “We’re [six] days in, but I do feel like there’s a lot to preserve there.”
Shell added that rather than seeing the cable outlets (BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Pop, Smithsonian, TV Land and VH1, plus premium outlet Showtime) as “declining linear assets,” Paramount Skydance will take the approach that they are “brands we have to redefine.”
Responding to a question about BET — which has been the subject of persistent talk about a possible sale in recent years — CEO David Ellison said his intention is to keep the company Skydance and its partner RedBird Capital purchased intact.
“We had this conversation with Shari [Redstone] when we had the first meeting about the company — our intention is to keep the company together and invest through that lens long term,” he said.
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