David Ellison Finally Won Paramount. What Now?

On Thursday morning, David Ellison will clock in for his first day at work as a media mogul.

That’s when Ellison’s Skydance will officially get the keys to Paramount Global — the Sumner Redstone-created corporate giant whose falling fortunes come as streaming services and YouTube have spun the industry off its axis.

But Ellison has a plan. He wants to shed $2 billion in operating costs, revive the creative engine of the studio by bringing in a new team of executives and make the new firm (which will be called Paramount, a Skydance Company) a tech-leaning operation. It’s a blueprint that has remained unchanged even in the face of staggering obstacles, including foot-dragging from Shari Redstone, Sumner’s daughter and former Paramount custodian; eleventh-hour rival bids; and an ugly, protracted legal battle between President Trump and CBS.

Now the Ellison era at Paramount truly begins. Here’s what he’s up against, what he’s got going for him and what he has to prove.

The Town

Ellison was once shrugged off as a billionaire’s son (his father is Oracle founder Larry Ellison) with an airplane collection, but sources across the media sphere say that he has matured into a worthy leader, with a grasp of both the business and the art of making movies and shows. Rivals and analysts suggest that Ellison has improved at managing profit and loss and appeasing superstar creative talent like Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron (arguably the two most important tasks in running a studio).

Today, other C-suite dwellers admire the tenacity of Ellison, who twisted in the wind so publicly during the Trump fiasco. The president’s lawsuit over the editing of a “60 Minutes” segment with his White House rival Kamala Harris dragged the Ellison deal into the muck — especially as Trump’s Federal Communications Commission was weighing regulatory approval on it. Ellison suffered in silence, which has earned him respect in power circles. But now, the habitually behind-the-scenes bigwig will be thrust into the international spot- light, thanks to Paramount’s sheer size and eco- nomic impact. Some in town are quick to note that Ellison has never run something as massive as Paramount, with its more than 18,000 employees.

“I don’t think it’s an accident that he’s gotten to this moment,” says one veteran franchise producer who has worked with Ellison and his team at Sky- dance. “He doesn’t have bravado like a lot of CEOs. He’s poised and understated, but very intelligent.”

Throughout the tumult, Ellison seemingly stuck by his mantra that superior storytelling is the way to drive long-term value. He flew to the home of one of Paramount’s top creators to discuss scripts and spinoff pacing in the spring, mid-Trump melt- down, two sources tell Variety.

Some competitors suggest that the optics of Par- amount settling with Trump, followed quickly by the network’s canning of late-night host Stephen Colbert, who was a critic of the deal with the president, could hurt the incoming Ellison regime’s ability to lure A-list talent. Will they want to work for someone seen as kowtowing to Trump?

Numerous agents that Variety spoke to challenge the thinking, with several offering variations on the same response: “A buyer is a buyer.” And it could have been worse. If Paramount had sold to another major studio, it likely would have led to even deeper layoffs and a decrease in production. With Ellison’s billions behind it, Paramount may actually ramp up production.

The Street

Speaking of long-term value, “good storytelling” isn’t exactly Viagra for a company’s stock price. Yes, Ellison is well capitalized, but what does he know that leaders at Disney, Comcast or Warner Bros. Discovery don’t? Tech is his bet.

Basic technological functions at Paramount — like systems that govern payroll, data and content protection — are so archaic that another source compares it to “a semitruck running on AA batteries.” Ellison, according to two sources, also believes that tech will save Paramount+, which has struggled to attract subscribers, from obsolescence.

It was previously reported that he will partner with Oracle to aid in combining Paramount+ with Pluto TV. A hulked-up Paramount streaming ser- vice will also benefit from Oracle’s expertise in user experience (reminder: Oracle is responsible for TikTok’s algorithm).

Two insiders also say Ellison has plans for making Paramount a “studio in the cloud.” That means sharing content in all stages of production digitally, in hopes of shortening lead times on work like

post-production on movies and shows. And Team Ellison has teased a new artificial intelligence tech, one designed to help content travel to international markets faster. Time, of course, will tell how much these improvements impress Wall Street.

There’s only so much tinkering that Ellison can do when it comes to Paramount. The studio faces challenges that even the brightest minds might not be able to overcome. Movies are not nearly as pop- ular as they once were, and audiences are moving away from broadcast and cable, which used to be cash cows, toward subscription streaming services. In that realm, Netflix towers over Paramount+.

“This is a declining studio in a declining segment of the entertainment industry,” says Peter New- man, the head of the MBA/MFA program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. “The odds of turning it around are stacked against them.”

The Operation

Earlier this week, Ellison solidified his new leadership bench: former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell as president; Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg as co-chairs of the studio group, handling both film and TV; George Cheeks staying in place as head of CBS, linear networks and un- scripted; Cindy Holland as head of direct-to-consumer; and Andy Gordon, of Skydance equity partner RedBird Capital, as COO.

Ellison intends to take a close hand in the creative process, multiple insiders familiar with the deal say, and will work in concert with Greenstein and Goldberg to ensure Paramount wins big film packages and splashy overall TV creator deals. Goldberg’s top Skydance lieutenants — Matt Thunell from TV and Don Granger of Skydance Sports — will join Paramount in the coming days.

Shell is making his own return of sorts and has been tasked with rebuilding the most basic ser- vices of the company. Two individuals familiar with Shell’s day-one plans say the executive will focus on streamlining the distribution verticals, work to bring down costs in programming for the cable networks (which is certainly happening at all of Paramount’s rivals) and play to one of his biggest strengths — squeezing all the juice he can out of the company’s sports business. Among CBS’ biggest assets is its contract with the NFL to carry AFC games on Sundays, and CBS is in the rotation every few years for Super Bowl rights. Skydance’s sports division also has an exclusive adaptive con- tent deal with the NFL.

Shell and Ellison will also contend with the immediate collateral damage from layoffs — the scourge of Hollywood morale across all studios. More than 1,000 jobs will be slashed in service of the pledged $2 billion in cost cutting. A bright new day at Paramount will come with a lot of pink slips.