Ellison publishes open letter about future of Paramount Skydance

Skydance Media and Paramount Global announced the completion of their merger Aug. 7, 2025, and its new CEO, David Ellison, penned an open letter to constituents.

Analysis: Digging into Paramount Skydance deal’s implications for broadcasting

Key takeaways

• Ellison heavily emphasized the use of technology across the company, including migrating the “entire enterprise” to an unnamed “single technology platform” for the first time. It’s not clear if a vendor has been selected, but Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, which has significant operations in enterprise tech.
• Paramount+ and Pluto TV will move to a shared technology stack in 2026. The letter did not mention plans to merge the brands, but it also did not rule that out.
• Re-emphasized the $2 billion in promised savings as a result of the merger. Later, David mentions “formidable challenges” without naming specifics, but most agree that the company will embark on significant cost-cutting and job losses. 
• The letter contains a passing reference to CBS News, which has been targeted by Donald Trump and the source of significant controversies over what many see as concessions given to Trump’s administration that could affect the division. 
• David also emphasized the company’s core storytelling mission, including the use of technology and “opportunities that will help define the next era of entertainment.”

Below is the full text of the letter, which Paramount posted to its press website:

To our teammates, shareholders, creative partners, and the hundreds of millions of people who invite our stories into your lives every day…

Today marks Day One of a new Paramount. With the close of the transaction, we unite more than a century of iconic storytelling with the ingenuity and drive of a 15‑year-old studio born in the digital era. I am thrilled and honored to write to you as the Chairman and CEO of Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, as—together with our Board, our new executive leadership team, and our colleagues around the world—we embark on the exciting next chapter of this legendary company.

The vision of Paramount, a Skydance Corporation

We began this journey to combine Paramount and Skydance nearly two years ago with a clear objective: to transform Paramount—a company with a storied history and an undeniable impact on culture for over a century—by investing in high-quality storytelling and cutting-edge technology and pursuing opportunities that will help define the next era of entertainment. That ambition was and continues to be fueled by a powerful set of core strengths and unique assets across our now-combined company, including:

• A world-class content library, globally recognized brands, and a powerful creative engine — now further enhanced by Skydance’s acclaimed portfolio and expertise in film, television, animation, and gaming
• A fast-growing DTC offering that we expect will be a leading, global streaming service
• Vital relationships with many of the world’s best film and television creative partners, both in front of and behind the camera
• Dynamic partnerships with the world’s premier sports leagues—including the NFL and UEFA—which are increasingly important today given their unmatched ability to drive engagement, reach global audiences, and deliver consistent value
• CBS – America’s most-watched broadcast network in primetime for a record-breaking 17 consecutive seasons
• CBS News – home to one of the most storied American broadcast journalism legacies in America, including 60 Minutes, with a long tradition of impactful reporting led by seasoned journalists committed to accuracy, integrity, and public trust
• An all-star executive leadership team, united by a shared vision and empowered with the resources and creative autonomy to boldly drive our business forward
• An owner-operator culture that aligns incentives and enables bold, strategic decision-making with a clear focus on long-term value

Our north star

We recognize that realizing our ambitions in today’s dynamic and fiercely competitive global market won’t be easy. We are in the midst of a generational change in our industry—and we understand Paramount has faced its own significant challenges, compounded by the reality of a merger process that stretched out over a considerable time period.

But that time of uncertainty is now behind us. Moving forward, we will work with conviction and optimism to transform Paramount into a tech-forward company that blends the creative heart of Hollywood with the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley. By harnessing cutting-edge technologies to serve great storytelling, we will unlock the company’s enormous potential.

We have the resources, talent and strategic clarity we need to build the world’s next generation media and entertainment company. And to get there, we will focus our efforts and investments on the areas with the greatest potential for growth and impact.

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These priorities will be our guiding north star:

• Investing in our growth businesses anchored by our creative engines and superior storytelling
• Scaling our direct-to-consumer business globally
• Driving efficiency enterprise-wide with a focus on long-term free cash flow generation
• By directing our energy, investment, and innovation in these areas where we see the greatest opportunity, we are confident we will drive meaningful progress and build long-term value.

Our plan

At the same time, we recognize that sustained, profitable growth is not achievable in today’s relentlessly dynamic market without far-reaching changes that will make us a leaner, faster, smarter, and more agile company.

Toward that end, the coming months will be defined by a series of focused efforts to reengineer how our company operates, produces its creative content, and goes to market. These include:

Driving efficiency and improved decision-making

We will reorganize our company into three business units: Studios, Direct-to-Consumer, and TV Media, with the primary goal being to streamline strategic decision-making and thereby accelerate our ability to move the business forward.

For example, we believe by bringing our studios together we will enable comprehensive green‑light and licensing decisions, increase production output, enhance our ability to attract top creative talent, and improve transparency for our external stakeholders. On the TV Media side, our challenge is to reinvent our portfolio of brands for a non-linear world. We plan to invest appropriately based on the future business opportunity, thereby maximizing cash flow so we can reinvest in our growth businesses.

Among other significant changes to our operations, we are planning a process to transition the entire enterprise to a single technology platform for the first time. In doing so, we will be able to reduce our technology spend while driving substantial efficiency and performance gains and enabling leaders across the company to make faster and better decisions. That investment, combined with other initiatives to achieve efficiencies in costs associated with labor, real estate, procurement, and workflow gives us even greater confidence in our ability to not only achieve—but meaningfully exceed—the $2 billion in real efficiencies we previously announced.

Supercharging our creative engine

As we realize these efficiencies, we will redirect resources toward what matters most: delivering a greater volume of high-quality films, television series, sports, news, and games to audiences worldwide. Our focus remains on investing in areas where we see meaningful opportunity for growth, as demonstrated by our recent five-year global streaming exclusivity deal for South Park on Paramount+.

We also want to empower our creative partners with technology that will enable them to tell bigger, more compelling stories fueled by human ingenuity. Technology is not—and never will be—a replacement for human creativity; rather, it serves as a powerful multiplier. From virtual production stages that unleash filmmakers’ limitless imaginations, to AI‑assisted localization that brings shows to new language markets overnight, to a proprietary ad‑tech stack that maximizes yield across streaming and linear platforms, we will thoughtfully integrate these tools into every aspect of our work.

Scaling our streaming services

While all these changes will transform our company, none will be more pivotal to our future than the evolution of our streaming services, which we will scale into powerful, profitable global platforms. We are committed to increasing investment in premium, exclusive content because we understand that exceptional storytelling is the single biggest driver of subscriber growth and loyalty. In particular, sports serve as a powerful engine for deep audience engagement, ultimately helping to reduce churn and boost ARPU over time.

Starting next year, Paramount+ and Pluto TV will operate on a unified technology stack, dramatically improving performance and driving significant financial savings. Most importantly, this integration will elevate the consumer experience across our services — enhancing our recommendation engine, accelerating delivery speed and quality, while also giving us the opportunity to position Pluto TV as the ‘top of the funnel’ to attract new customers to Paramount+.

Our commitment

As we advance this ambitious vision, we remain deeply committed to our stakeholders and the responsibilities we hold to them. We understand the weight of stewarding an iconic company that touches the lives of hundreds of millions worldwide and plays a vital role in shaping our shared culture. Above all, everything we do will be rooted in trust, guided by facts, and aligned with the core values that define us as a company.

Inevitably, challenging decisions and difficult trade-offs lie ahead. We will face them head on, maintaining transparency by openly sharing the rationale behind our choices and how they serve the best interests of our stakeholders.

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In that spirit, we offer a few core commitments:

• Our Paramount Teammates: You are the heart of this company. As we work to build a more agile, collaborative, and high-performing organization, we remain deeply committed to a culture that empowers people to do their best work. We know that change is never easy—and in the coming months, we will face some hard but necessary decisions to align our team for growth and efficiency. We will approach this process with transparency, care, and respect, always guided by our appreciation for everything you contribute.
• Consumers: Our goal is to be your go-to destination for the very best in entertainment, news and sports—delivered how, when and where you want it.
• Creative partners: We will align rights, revenue, and recognition to ensure Paramount is the first call for filmmakers, artists, sports leagues, and journalists seeking a creative home that champions their work and amplifies it on a global stage.
• News partners: We recognize it’s been a challenging period and we’re deeply grateful for your resilience, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to the news business. We take immense pride in CBS News’ legacy of impactful journalism and look forward to continuing to foster a newsroom culture where journalists are empowered, trusted, and equipped to do their best work.
• Investors: Our financial north star is to maximize the long-term value of the company. We will invest appropriately in our businesses given the size of their future opportunities—in some areas this may mean bold moves and increased investments, and in others it will mean scrutinizing spending to maximize margins and cash flow—all with the goal to drive shareholder value. We plan to give a more fulsome update, including our financial outlook, with our Q3 earnings.

Success in our many shared endeavors along this journey will require collaboration, cooperation and mutual respect, and that is our collective pledge starting on day one.

Looking ahead

The years ahead will undoubtedly bring formidable challenges, but they will also usher in extraordinary opportunities. We stand at the threshold of a remarkable moment — and our strong conviction is that this company is poised to make the most of the possibilities ahead. Because when creative excellence, cutting‑edge technology, and disciplined stewardship meet, great things happen — on the screen and on the balance sheet.

Thank you for your trust, your partnership and, above all, your unwavering passion for exceptional storytelling. It is a profound honor to lead this exceptional organization into the future — and I am genuinely excited to get started as we boldly forge the next defining chapter of Paramount, together.

David Ellison
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Paramount, a Skydance Corporation