One of the key talking points CEO David Ellison and Paramount executives repeated in the run-up to its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is that the combined company would produce 30 feature films each year.
That’s a big output — but it pales compared to the number of TV productions the now combined company, Skydance, controls.
Warner Bros. Television was, by itself, the most prolific studio in the business. It has more than 80 series of all types — ranging from The Pitt to the Bachelor franchise — on some 20 different networks and streamers.
The TV studio operation is instantly more than 50 percent larger than WBTV’s slate. That’s not even accounting for the also massive reach that Skydance’s combined cable network portfolio and streaming operations will have. Here’s a breakdown of each of those facets of the company’s business.
CBS Studios and Paramount TV Studios, the Paramount side of Skydance’s TV portfolio, together produce more than 40 current or upcoming shows. CBS Studios is responsible for most of its namesake network’s scripted series, including the NCIS franchise, Sheriff/Fire Country and Elsbeth. Paramount TV Studios, meanwhile, has all of Taylor Sheridan’s current output, along with Reacher (co-produced with Amazon MGM Studios), Dexter: Resurrection and others.
That’s more than 120 series coming out of the new Skydance. And at least for now, that won’t be changing.
“We’re not looking to reduce output or production,” co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said at a press event the day the merger closed. “It’s about efficient operation, and we have plans how to achieve that while still maintaining creative pods to ensure that creativity still continues to flow.”
A day after the merger became official, there’s no set plan on whether, let alone how, the three studios will combine some operations. With Skydance aiming to achieve $6 billion in “synergies” — i.e., layoffs and elimination of some duplicated functions — to help with its $80 billion debt load, some consolidation is likely to happen.
Recent history may (or may not) serve as a guide here. In the years after Disney absorbed Fox’s entertainment assets, four studios — 20th TV, ABC Studios, ABC Signature and Fox 21 — eventually folded into just one; 20th is the sole survivor. Pre-merger Paramount shut down Paramount TV Studios in 2024, then revived the name a year later, combining Showtime/MTV Entertainment and Skydance TV.
Neither of those, however, had anywhere near the scale of the new Skydance. In Channing Dungey (WBTV), David Stapf (CBS Studios) and Matt Thunell (PTVS), all three studios have leaders who have been on the job for a long time (Thunell led Skydance TV for several years before PTVS was reconstituted). Each will likely try to protect as much of their own spheres as much as they can, though all three ultimately report to TV chief George Cheeks.
The big question hanging over Skydance’s streaming operation is not so much whether HBO Max and Paramount+ will be combined in a single service, but when? Ellison has repeatedly said he wants the two platforms to merge — but the “when” part is more complicated. It will take some time to bring both streamers onto a single tech platform and merge two huge libraries.
Casey Bloys (creative) and JB Perrette (business) will lead the streaming division of the company, both coming from WBD. HBO boss Bloys will have a collection of hits: The Pitt, Landman and Dutton Ranch were among the biggest shows in the U.S. in 2025-26. HBO staples like The White Lotus and The Last of Us and Paramount+’s stable of series from Sheridan (at least for the next couple of years) are also churning out new seasons.
As she was at WBD, Dungey will now have oversight of Skydance’s huge portfolio of more than 25 cable networks. Those assets air dozens of shows from outside producers, mostly smaller companies specializing in unscripted and documentary programming. Former WBD networks Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC and ID are among the biggest buyers of original programming in the cable industry.
There’s also some overlap: Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon are both aimed at kids and have robust animation businesses; TBS, TNT, TruTV (which for some reason is missing from the image below of Skydance’s portfolio) and Paramount Network have similar general audience remits (though Paramount doesn’t have any sports rights). Floating above all of that is the decade-long decline in cable as a profit center.
The antitrust settlement between Paramount and state attorneys general requires Skydance to negotiate separate carriage agreements with cable and satellite operators — one for the former Paramount channels and one for the WBD outlets. That’s maybe a minor headache for the Skydance. The bigger question is how long and at what scale does the newly combined company event want to be in the cable business.
