While there are a number of questions surrounding assets in a proposed Skydance-Paramount merger, the future of sports at the company won't be one of them.
Jeff Shell, the former NBCUniversal chair who is expected to be the new Paramount president, during a call with investors on Monday used words like "critical" and "cornerstone" when describing what sports will mean to the company's future. “When you look at the CBS Sports portfolio, it is really pretty formidable,” Shell said. “So while we’re going to be managing the cash flow of the business, sports is the foundation of our business."
Shell lauded the leadership of David Berson, who recently took over for Sean McManus as president of CBS Sports. He also alluded to CBS continuing to be a player for sports rights as those come up. "If there’s compelling rights in the future that we think can bolster us, we are a buyer, probably, rather than a seller.”
Some rights within Paramount's portfolio include a wide array of soccer assets, like the NWSL, UEFA Champions League, USL, Concacaf World Cup qualifiers and Serie A (for now). The company also has the Masters, PGA Tour golf, PGA Championship, Professional Bull Riders, Big Ten, Mountain West and Army-Navy game, among others.
But the biggest CBS property partner remains the NFL, whose rights may be coming up sooner than some expected. CBS and many other networks are in the middle of deals that originally were intended to go through 2033. However, many suspect the NFL will exercise an opt-out clause in its deals with Amazon, CBS, Fox and NBC after the 2029 season (as well as ESPN in 2030) in order to get more value out in the market.
Would Skydance balk at such an ask? Not likely. Skydance is now deeply intertwined with the NFL, part of a 2022 deal that also saw the league's 32 Equity investment fund make a sizeable investment into Skydance Sports, which began ideating on scripted TV, movies, game shows, cooking and travel shows, anime and other animation works and foreign-language productions for The Shield.
That has already bore fruit with various projects, including an upcoming Jerry Jones documentary that went to Netflix for $50 million and a Chiefs-branded feature film that will air on Hallmark this holiday season. David Ellison, CEO of Skydance, said that the merger will create an “incredibly compelling” offer for NFL fans and build a new “robust, interactive” vertical within Paramount.
Shell also expects to continue leaning heavily into the reach of broadcast TV. "We thought broadcast would decline along with cable five years ago. That just simply hasn't happened," he said. "Broadcast is declining much, much more slowly than cable is, making broadcast relatively a lot stronger.”
Another reason to be bullish on sports within a Skydance-run Paramount is Gerry Cardinale's RedBird Capital, which is a major financial backer for Skydance. Cardinale is deeply committed to sports, backing efforts like the UFL, SpringHill Entertainment and YES Network (along with his ownership of Serie A club AC Milan).
The Paramount-Skydance deal is expected to close in September 2025, pending regulatory approval, or if Paramount finds a better deal (in which case it would pay a $400 million breakup fee to Skydance).
