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Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The CEO of Paramount Global urged staffers at the entertainment conglomerate to focus on their 2024 business goals, even as a handful of industry heavy hitters and investment firms explore a potential acquisition of the company and speculation about looming layoffs intensifies. In a memo issued to employees Thursday and reviewed by Variety, Bob Bakish acknowledged that Paramount’s future “remains a topic of speculation,” a nod to the fact that a group of investors led by Skydance founder David Ellison have engaged in talks with Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish said today the company will continue to reduce its global workforce “to operate as a leaner company and spend less.” But there were no further details in a memo to staff obtained by Deadline following a “Bob Live” town hall today.  

David Ellison’s Skydance is said to have made a preliminary offer to buy Shari Redstone’s stake in National Amusements, the family holding company that controls Paramount Global, according to a Bloomberg report.

With its streaming operations facing scrutiny as 2024 gets under way, Paramount Global continues to pursue a diversified approach to distributing its flagship, Paramount+.

Top U.S. cable operator Comcast has reached a carriage renewal with Paramount Global, averting a potential blackout of service around the New Year’s holiday.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has acquired Turkish streamer BluTV.

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here leading you into the Christmas break with your final dash of news and analysis of the year. It’s been a blast. Thank you to regular readers for taking time out your busy schedules to give this a good ol’ glance every week. As our counterparts across the pond like to say, we appreciate you. We’ll be back in 2024 with plenty more.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Mega media merger mania is once again afoot in Hollywood with very, very early talks between Warner Bros. Discovery‘s David Zaslav and Paramount Global’s Bob Bakish about a potential merger of the two companies. Analysts and industry sources have already raised a number of questions about what a WBD-Paramount combo would look like and the effect it could have on the larger TV and film landscape.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Would the combination of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global — two companies heavily tied to the declining legacy TV biz — make financial sense? Investors reacted to news of early talks between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount about a potential merger, which broke just prior to market close Wednesday.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks for a potential merger that would see two of the world’s biggest media companies join together, according to reports.The talks are in a “very early stage” and the merger may still not go ahead, sources close to the talks claim.Warner Bros.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Here we go again? Warner Bros. Discovery is flirting with the idea of acquiring Paramount Global. If a deal involving the Redstone empire comes to fruition, it would mark another transformative mega-merger for Hollywood legacy brands, following on the heels of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, AT&T’s difficult marriage with Time Warner in 2018 and the subsequent Discovery-WarnerMedia tie-up that closed in April 2022.

Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks on a possible merger.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks about a potential merger of the two media companies, Variety has confirmed.

Paramount Global shares closed up nearly 10% Friday, leading entertainment stocks higher after the Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Global and Apple are discussing bundling their respective streaming platforms at a discount.

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish has long touted “hard bundles,” the hybrid carriage agreements found in Europe and other international markets that weave streaming into conventional pay-TV packages.

The actors are still on strike and it’s still costing Paramount Global.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Paramount Global saw a third-quarter profit hike thanks to new revenue from its streaming and film operations even as its largest business, linear TV, grappled with flat distribution revenue and a downturn in advertising dollars. The New York owner of CBS, the Paramount movie studio and the Nickelodeon cable network said revenue rose 3% during the period, largely due to a 38% increase in its streaming business and a 14% hike from its film division, which benefitted from the latest releases in the “Mission Impossible” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchises.

Paramount has completed the $1.62 billion sale of book publisher Simon & Schuster to investment firm KKR, nearly a year after a richer sale to Penguin Random House ran aground over regulatory issues.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Aiming to grow its global direct-to-consumer distribution, Paramount+ has set the international rollout plans for its premium and ad tier subscriptions following a launch across more than 45 markets last year. The premium plan will launch in Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico on Nov.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor CANNES – Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish delivered a testimonial to the power of “new age” local and regional content licensing partnerships during a wide-ranging Q&A held Tuesday after the Viacom veteran was feted as Mipcom’s Personality of the Year. During a wide-ranging Q&A that followed the award presentation, Bakish batted down industry speculation about Paramount’s financial health (“To say we were saved by the strikes is totally an overstatement”) and his hope that the SAG-AFTRA strike will soon be in Hollywood’s rear-view mirror (“We’ll get there”). Paramount Global unveiled a multi-year pact with Greek pay TV service Cosmote TV just before Bakish sat for a Q&A with Variety co-editor in chief Cynthia Littleton.

“The notion that the strikes saved the company is wildly overstated,” Bob Bakish said of Paramount today.

EXCLUSIVE: The major U.S. studios heading to Mipcom are proving global streaming and third-party licensing “can co-exist and work together,” says the event’s director.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent With the writers’ strike over, a new studio brand and new management in part of international, Paramount Global execs are attending Madrid’s Iberseries & Platino Industria, Rome’s MIA market and Mipcom as they talk up their competitive assets and priorities to the international market. In one move, five months after it the launch of Paramount Television International Studios in May, Paramount Global’s Darío Turovelzky delivered a keynote on Thursday at Iberseries & Platino Industria.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mipcom, the Cannes-set international TV showcase, will pay tribute to Arthur Essebag, the well-known French TV host and founder of Satisfaction Group. Essebag will receive the international format awards at a gala ceremony on Oct. 15.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish said the Disney-Charter carriage dispute took a “notable” financial toll on many pay-TV stakeholders, but he touted his efforts to “modernize” the company’s distribution relationships for the streaming era.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Paramount+ saw its first price increase this year with the launch of Paramount+ With Showtime, and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish says it won’t be the streamer’s last. The goal is to hike the cost of Paramount+ With Showtime once again at some point in the next two years. “Our plan is to raise price again, this isn’t our only price increase.

California Treasurer Fiona Ma has sent letters to the CEOs of seven Hollywood studios urging a return to the bargaining table with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA to end a months-long double strike that’s shut down much of the entertainment industry and is taking a major toll on the California economy.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Paramount Global hosted its second-quarter earnings call Tuesday amid the ongoing writers and actors strikes in Hollywood. Just like every other major media company that has reported its Q2 results already, the CBS parent company’s execs addressed the work stoppages with hopes for a timely resolution and comments on how it will affect their business operations. “We anticipate continued delays in production for the duration of the strikes, and as such, we estimate free cash flow in the back half of the year will be significantly higher than previously expected,” Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra said.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish isn’t ruling out the possibility of the company teaming with other players in the media space to create a more viable streaming bundle.

Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount Global, has found himself on his second earnings call discuss a strike in Hollywood.

The NFL is expanding its alternate broadcasts with Nickelodeon and CBS Sports to the Super Bowl.

Paramount Global has re-upped CFO Naveen Chopra through 2026.

Fox unveiled its 2023/24 programming slate this morning and the writers strike was front and center.

Kristin Dolan, who took over earlier this year as CEO of AMC Networks, said the company is “very well positioned” to manage through the WGA strike.

Taking the mic for the second time in a week, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish explained why the company slashed its dividend and talked streaming, advertising and weathering a WGA strike.

Warner Bros Discovery’s hour-long earnings call with Wall Street analysts Friday morning included nary a mention of the WGA strike, unlike many other such calls in recent days.