Paramount’s Ellison Sees ‘A Lot of Options’ for Media Deals

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Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison sits down with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss his media empire and future dealmaking at Bloomberg Screentime in Los Angeles. - Paramount Skydance Corp. Chief Executive Officer David Ellison, who is reportedly weighing a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., said he sees a lot of opportunity for consolidation in the industry. “There’s a lot of options out there in terms of what actually might be actionable in the near future,” Ellison said Thursday at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles. Bloomberg News reported earlier that Ellison was weighing a bid for Warner Bros. Ellison said he couldn’t comment on Warner Bros. specifically, but he did make the case for more industry mergers. “Ironically, it was (Warner Bros. CEO) David Zaslav last year that said, you know, consolidation in the media business is important,” Ellison said. “And the way we approach everything is first and foremost what’s good for the talent community, what’s good for our shareholders and value creation, and what’s good for basically storytelling at large.” Ellison took over Paramount, the parent of CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV and the namesake movie studio, in August after completing an $8 billion merger with his film production company Skydance Media. He’s already made a number of big deals, including acquiring the Free Press, an online news service, and installing its founder, Bari Weiss, as editor-in-chief of CBS News. Under its previous leadership, Paramount faced criticism from the Trump administration, which accused the company’s CBS News division of being politically biased. President Donald Trump reached a $16 million settlement with Paramount in July over a lawsuit in which he accused CBS News of favorably editing an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris prior to the 2024 election.  -------- Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube Weekdays 7am-6pm ET WATCH HERE: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/BloombergRadio Subscribe to our Podcasts: Bloomberg Daybreak: http://bit.ly/3DWYoAN Bloomberg Surveillance: http://bit.ly/3OPtReI Bloomberg Intelligence: http://bit.ly/3YrBfOi Balance of Power: http://bit.ly/3OO8eLC Bloomberg Businessweek: http://bit.ly/3IPl60i Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app: Apple CarPlay: https://apple.co/486mghI Android Auto: https://bit.ly/49benZy Visit our YouTube channels: Bloomberg Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/bloombergpodcasts Bloomberg Television: https://www.youtube.com/@markets Bloomberg Originals: https://www.youtube.com/bloomberg Quicktake: https://www.youtube.com/@BloombergQuicktake