Skydance Corporation expects to pay about $6 billion a year in interest on the debt it raised and assumed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, according to the quarterly report it filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on November 9, 2026. The same filing, together with a shareholder letter and an earnings call that afternoon, closed the books on Paramount Skydance as a standalone business: third-quarter revenue rose 5% to $7.0 billion, adjusted EBITDA was flat at $1.0 billion and advertising revenue fell 3%, even with a lift from US midterm election spending.

The bill for the deal is now visible line by line. Skydance paid $97.4 billion in preliminary purchase consideration, issued 3.9 billion new shares at $12.00 each, and reported about $87 billion of gross debt after closing. To carry it, management is targeting at least $6 billion of annual cost savings within three years. At least $1 billion of that is meant to come out of a combined marketing budget of about $5 billion, partly by merging media planning and buying across the company's business units.

In Short

Skydance, the company formed when Paramount Skydance completed its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, 2026, reported a final standalone Paramount quarter with 5% revenue growth, 21% growth at Paramount+ and a 3% decline in advertising revenue. The takeover left it with about $87 billion of gross debt and an expected interest bill of roughly $6 billion a year, which it plans to offset with at least $6 billion of yearly savings, including at least $1 billion from a marketing budget of about $5 billion. Advertisers, agencies and media sellers face a single sales leadership spanning CBS, CNN, TNT Sports, Paramount+, HBO Max and Pluto TV, a Paramount+ and HBO Max bundle in early 2027, and no more quarterly subscriber counts from the fourth-quarter report onward.

The last Paramount-only quarter

The quarter ended September 30, 2026, a week before the deal closed. On October 6 the company amended its charter and changed its name from Paramount Skydance Corporation to Skydance Corporation, according to the 10-Q, and its non-voting Class B shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD. Warner Bros. Discovery will be consolidated from that date. The third-quarter figures therefore describe Paramount, CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV and the former Skydance Media studio, nothing more.

Revenue was $7.025 billion, compared with a pro forma $6.714 billion a year earlier. The pro forma label matters. Paramount Global's assets and liabilities were revalued at fair value when the Ellison family took control on August 7, 2025, so the company reports a "Predecessor" period up to August 6, 2025 and a "Successor" period from August 7, and states that results "are not comparable" across that line. The 5% growth figure combines the two 2025 stubs and adds $12 million of Skydance Media revenue.

Operating income came to $368 million, a 5.2% margin, after $187 million of restructuring and transaction-related items. Net earnings attributable to the company were $73 million, or $0.06 per diluted share. Two large items moved in opposite directions underneath: a $514 million gain on interest rate contracts taken out in the second quarter to hedge the acquisition borrowing, and a $275 million discrete tax charge, mainly from a reserve for uncertain tax positions. On an adjusted basis, which strips out restructuring, transaction costs and the tax item but keeps the hedge gain, net earnings were $506 million, or $0.45 a share.

Adjusted EBITDA was $1.000 billion, a 14.2% margin, up 0.3% on the prior year. Dennis Cinelli, the chief financial officer, told analysts the figure "exceeded the top end of our guidance." The growth rate has nonetheless slowed sharply. According to the four quarters tabulated in the letter, adjusted EBITDA rose 42% in the fourth quarter of 2025, 59% in the first quarter of 2026 and 27% in the second, before flattening in the third.

Cash generation was weak. Operating activities produced $123 million and free cash flow was $31 million, after $174 million of restructuring, transaction-related and transformation payments. Cash and equivalents were $1.377 billion at quarter end against gross debt of $15.0 billion. Those balance sheet numbers were overtaken within days.

Advertising fell despite the midterms

Advertising revenue totaled $1.889 billion, down 3% from a pro forma $1.944 billion. According to the 10-Q, the decline was "driven by lower international advertising," including a 2 percentage point drag from the absence of Telefe and Chilevisión, two international broadcasters sold in October 2025 and January 2026. Domestic advertising rose, with higher political spending adding 4 percentage points to total advertising revenue. Remove the political contribution and the decline would have been roughly 7%, by PPC Land's arithmetic on the company's own percentage-point breakdown.

The linear business carried the weight. TV Media advertising fell 8% to $1.344 billion. Domestic TV advertising slipped 3% to $1.177 billion, while international TV advertising dropped 33% to $167 million. The filing attributes 3 points of the segment decline to the broadcaster sales and offsets them with 3 points of political gains, which leaves the underlying linear market as the main explanation.

Streaming ran the other way. Advertising in the direct-to-consumer segment grew 13% to $542 million, "driven by growth in impressions for Paramount+ and higher political advertising sales," according to the 10-Q, which adds that the quarter benefited from UFC events streamed on Paramount+ under a rights agreement that began in January 2026. Over nine months, total advertising revenue was $6.29 billion, down 5% on a pro forma basis, including a 2-point hit from the comparison with CBS's broadcast in the second quarter of 2025 of the national semifinals and championship game of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which the network carries every other year.

The pattern matches the wider market data PPC Land has tracked through the autumn. iSpot figures showed that streaming took 48.7% of US national TV ad spend on 21.9% of impressions in the third quarter of 2026, while midterm political demand pushed premium CTV prices to $43. Nielsen's second-quarter data had already shown ad-supported platforms slipping to 71.5% of US viewing.

Sports is where the company points for relief. "Sports advertising commitments have risen over 20% year-over-year for current and upcoming sports seasons leading into 2027," the shareholder letter states. With CBS Sports and TNT Sports combined, it adds, "Advertisers can purchase media across the sports portfolio through a single partner spanning broadcast, cable, and streaming." The NFL on CBS averaged 19.6 million viewers through Week 8, up 5% on the prior year, according to the same letter. The 10-Q carries the caveat: "Growing macroeconomic uncertainty may negatively affect our results, in particular from potential impacts on the advertising market." It names tariffs and the conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran among the political risks.

Paramount+ grows faster but earns less

Paramount+ revenue rose 21% to $2.134 billion, its fastest quarterly growth this year, after 17% in the fourth quarter of 2025, 17% in the first quarter of 2026 and 16% in the second. Subscribers reached 82.2 million, up 4.3 million or 6% from 77.9 million a year earlier, and up 0.6 million from 81.6 million at the end of June. Average revenue per user climbed 14% to $8.69 a month from $7.62. The company calculates that figure as total Paramount+ revenue divided by the average of opening and closing subscribers, divided again by the number of months.

The subscriber count includes customers who reach the service through a bundle with a vMVPD or an international distributor, and only paid subscriptions, according to the 10-Q. The year-earlier base also differs from the number reported at the time: PPC Land's coverage of the third quarter of 2025 recorded 79 million Paramount+ subscribers, while the current letter lists 77.9 million for September 2025. The documents do not explain the gap.

Total direct-to-consumer revenue grew 11% to $2.51 billion. Subscription and affiliate revenue in the segment rose 10% to $1.968 billion. The integration of BET+ into Paramount+ in the second quarter and declines at Paramount+ with Showtime together cut 6 points from segment growth. Engagement on Paramount+ was up more than 20%, according to both the letter and the call.

Profit went the other way. Direct-to-consumer adjusted EBITDA was $225 million, a 9.0% margin, which the letter attributes to "planned investment in our programming schedule in the quarter, including the UFC and ongoing investment in Originals." The 10-Q also cites higher revenue-sharing costs for third-party distribution. The letter does not compare segment profit with a year earlier. Adding the two 2025 reporting stubs, $309 million for August 7 to September 30 and $137 million on a recast basis for July 1 to August 6, gives $446 million, a PPC Land calculation; the company stresses that the periods either side of August 7, 2025 are not comparable because of the new accounting basis.

Pricing remains a lever. Ynon Kreiz, who joined as co-chief executive in October, told analysts: "we know that our ARPU lags other players in the industry." Including Warner Bros. Discovery, pro forma direct-to-consumer revenue grew 15% in the quarter, according to the letter.

Studios grew, television cut costs

The studio segment produced $1.496 billion of revenue, up 23%, with licensing and other revenue up 26% to $1.377 billion on "secondary market licensing and content produced for third parties," according to the letter. Theatrical revenue was flat at $112 million. PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie grossed more than $160 million worldwide and Heart of the Beast, starring Brad Pitt, more than $180 million. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $129 million, an 8.6% margin.

TV Media revenue fell 7% to $3.024 billion. Affiliate and subscription revenue declined 5% to $1.553 billion, "consistent with continued pay TV subscriber erosion while rates remain resilient." Yet segment adjusted EBITDA reached $1.028 billion, a 34.0% margin, which the filings attribute to cost savings. Adding the two 2025 stubs gives $845 million for the year-earlier quarter, a PPC Land calculation subject to the same comparability caveat. The letter says US pay TV subscriber declines "moderated sequentially" as genre-based packages gained traction with the start of the NFL season. Kreiz was more guarded on the call, saying the company would "conservatively plan for a structural decline of this business."

What Warner Bros. Discovery cost

The headline price was $31.00 per share. On top of that came a "ticking" payment of $0.00277778 per share for each calendar day after September 30, 2026 up to and including the closing date, according to the 10-Q. The ticking fee therefore ran for six days and added about 1.7 cents a share, a PPC Land calculation, taking the price to roughly $31.017.

The preliminary purchase consideration totals $97.4 billion. It is made up of $77.95 billion in cash to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders, $1.95 billion for the pre-combination portion of employee equity awards, $14.7 billion to settle Warner Bros. Discovery's term loans, and the $2.8 billion termination fee paid to Netflix in the first quarter of 2026 to end Netflix's earlier merger agreement. Skydance initially paid that fee from cash on hand and a $2.15 billion credit facility drawing; under the subscription agreements, the Ellison parties funded the amount at closing in exchange for Class B shares at $12.00 each. The accounting for the deal is incomplete, and the company says it will disclose provisional fair values and pro forma figures in its annual report.

The route to that price was long. Netflix agreed on December 5, 2025 to buy Warner Bros.' studios and HBO Max, and in January 2026 moved to an all-cash offer of $27.75 per share. Paramount's bids rose from $30 to $31 per share, and on February 27, 2026 Warner Bros. Discovery switched to the Paramount offer. Brussels cleared the merger on July 22, 2026, on condition that Paramount exits the UIP film distribution venture in the EEA within 13 months.

Equity raised at the floor

The equity came in at the bottom of its range. Investors in the private placement received new non-voting Class B shares priced at the 20-trading-day volume-weighted average, subject to a ceiling of $16.02 and a floor of $12.00, according to the 10-Q. The price was set at $12.00. Skydance issued about 3,918 million shares for gross proceeds of $47.01 billion.

The Ellison family put in $14.85 billion for 1.24 billion shares and RedBird $5.2 billion for 433 million shares, according to the related-party note. The rest of the syndicate includes the Public Investment Fund, an investment vehicle of Abu Dhabi's L'Imad Holding, a vehicle of the Qatar Investment Authority, and LionTree Investment Fund. The filing does not break out their individual amounts; by subtraction, they and any other syndicate parties account for roughly $27 billion and about 2.25 billion shares, a PPC Land calculation.

The new stock reshaped the shareholder register. Class B shares outstanding rose from 1,092.9 million at September 30 to 5,012,722,281 on November 4, which means the October issue accounts for about 78% of the class, by PPC Land's arithmetic. The Ellison family's combined economic stake in Class A and Class B shares fell from 47.1% to 35.0%, yet control is untouched: Harbor Lights Entertainment, formerly National Amusements, still holds 100% of the voting Class A stock, owned about 77.5% by Ellison entities and 22.5% by RedBird. Existing Class B holders received about 470.7 million ten-year warrants on October 13, exercisable at $12.00.

$72.1 billion of debt issued or assumed

The debt side is larger still. In connection with the merger, Skydance issued or assumed debt with an aggregate principal of $72.1 billion, according to the 10-Q. That comprises $56.9 billion raised to finance the deal ($5.0 billion of term A loans, $9.5 billion of seven-year term B-1 loans including a euro tranche, $30.0 billion of first lien senior secured notes and $12.4 billion of second lien notes), $12.6 billion of second lien notes swapped for old Warner Bros. Discovery bonds, and $2.7 billion of Warner Bros. Discovery notes assumed as they were.

The coupons are high for a company still working toward investment-grade credit metrics. First lien coupons run from 6.300% on notes due 2028 to 8.900% on notes due 2066. The dollar second lien notes carry 8.250% to 2031, 8.875% to 2034 and 9.125% to 2036. A $49 billion bridge facility was cancelled unused at closing, but $384 million of fees on it will be booked as interest expense in the fourth quarter. The new credit agreement caps the leverage ratio at 5.50 times and the first lien net leverage ratio at 3.25 times. Under the credit agreement, the security falls away once the company achieves certain credit ratings and meets other conditions.

The letter puts gross debt after closing at $87 billion and cash at about $10 billion, part of which is earmarked to pay former Warner Bros. Discovery staff for cash-converted equity and to retire a $4.0 billion receivables securitization program, of which $3.9 billion was drawn at closing. Debt maturing within five years of closing is $20.29 billion.

Interest is the pressure point. "As a result of the increase in our indebtedness, we expect our interest payments to increase significantly in future periods, with annual interest payments expected to be approximately $6 billion," the 10-Q states. Paramount Skydance booked $260 million of interest expense in the third quarter, which annualizes to about $1.04 billion, so the new run rate is nearly six times higher, a PPC Land calculation. The interest bill is also about the same size as the $6 billion of run-rate savings the company aims to reach by year three.

Management insists the balance sheet can be repaired from operations. The letter commits to cutting net leverage "to 3.0x by the end of 2029" and reaching investment-grade metrics within about three years of closing; David Ellison, chairman and chief executive, said on the call the aim was "below 3x" by the end of 2029. Cinelli was blunt on the means: "Achieving our leverage targets does not require us to raise additional capital or divest assets. We will hit our leverage goals through our operating plan." He added that the portfolio would be reviewed and that the company would be "opportunistic" about noncore assets. Until the target is met, excess cash beyond reinvestment and the current $0.05 quarterly dividend goes to debt repayment. The company did not disclose a current net leverage ratio for the combined group; Kevin Creighton, head of investor relations, said pro forma financials would be published before the fourth-quarter call.

Inside the $6 billion savings plan

The synergy target is "at least $6 billion in run-rate synergies, net of reinvestment," to be reached within three years, with 30% by the end of 2027 and 70% by the end of 2028, according to the letter and Cinelli. More than 20 workstreams are under way against a combined expense base of more than $50 billion. The letter breaks the target into four areas, each measured against its 2026 cost base:

  • Corporate overhead, real estate and facilities (about $8 billion): at least $2.2 billion, through consolidating back-office functions, removing management layers, shared services, a single ERP system, AI workflows and a smaller office footprint, while keeping the production lots.
  • Marketing (about $5 billion): at least $1.0 billion.
  • Technology (about $4 billion): at least $1.4 billion, by unifying the enterprise, streaming and broadcast technology stacks, merging parallel teams and "leveraging AI coding tools."
  • Procurement and vendor management (about $9 billion): at least $1.4 billion, by consolidating purchasing into one central group.

Measured against those bases, the targets amount to about 20% of marketing, 35% of technology, 27.5% of corporate overhead and 16% of procurement spending, a PPC Land calculation. Content, at more than $30 billion a year, sits outside the four buckets; the letter calls it "both an expense for us but also an investment." Kreiz gave a sense of the property overlap: five sites in New York, seven in Los Angeles and multiple locations in Atlanta and London.

Achieving the savings will cost about $4 billion in one-off cash, with $1.5 billion to $2 billion falling in 2027 and 60% to 70% across 2027 and 2028. Cinelli said most of the savings would land in corporate costs, direct-to-consumer and TV, with streaming savings coming "primarily through tech and marketing optimization." The 10-Q adds that further severance charges will follow in the fourth quarter under a voluntary program announced in October 2026.

Paramount's earlier efficiency program continues alongside. Its target was raised to more than $3 billion, over 50% above the initial 2024 goal, and it is on track to reach more than $2.7 billion of run-rate efficiencies by the end of 2026, with the remainder expected in 2027, according to the letter. PPC Land reported the increase from $2 billion to at least $3 billion in November 2025.

Marketing: at least $1 billion out of about $5 billion

For agencies and media owners, the marketing line is the one to watch. The letter describes savings from streamlining enterprise-wide spend and "strategic utilization of our expanded global portfolio to promote our key projects and initiatives." It then spells out the mechanism: "This includes unifying media planning and buying across business units to eliminate audience overlap, coordinate cross-BU campaigns, and maximize media efficiency at scale."

Kreiz described the same plan on the call. "We also see meaningful opportunities in marketing, at least $1 billion of savings. We will achieve this through streamlining and optimizing our global spend, cross-promoting key initiatives on our own platforms and unifying media planning and buying across all our business units."

The scale is considerable. With about $5 billion of marketing costs in 2026, the combined company is a large advertiser in its own right, promoting at least 30 films a year plus the series that run on Paramount+, HBO Max, CBS and the cable networks. Moving promotion onto owned screens and pooling purchases removes duplicate bookings, but it also leaves less for outside media owners and agencies than two separate budgets did. The documents do not name agencies or say which outside channels will lose spend.

The direction is familiar from Warner Bros. Discovery's own pre-merger plans. In July 2026, PPC Land reported that WBD was forcing convergence across its siloed ad units and unifying planning in the third quarter on an agentic AI platform built with AWS. That work concerned the sell side; the Skydance plan applies similar logic to the company's own media buying.

One sales structure, with conditions attached

The organizational change matters as much as the cost cuts for buyers. Ellison told analysts the company had aligned the leadership of linear television and direct-to-consumer. "So, trade-offs between streaming and linear are made with the full picture in view," he said, before adding: "Expanding on that theme, one business leader now spans distribution, ad sales and content sales. So, decisions are made holistically versus in silos."

That structure operates inside a consent decree agreed with twelve states. California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington sued in July 2026 to block the deal; the court entered the decree on September 30, 2026 and lifted the order that had barred closing. Over a five-year commitment period, the combined company must, according to the 10-Q:

  • release at least 30 to 32 films in the US each year, with theatrical windows of at least 45 days and no subscription streaming for at least 90 days;
  • spend at least $300 million more a year on US production than combined 2025 levels, keep and operate both studio lots and honor existing collective bargaining agreements;
  • fund $9.5 million a year in workforce and arts programs and $5 million a year for an Independent Film Fund;
  • create a News Editorial Independence Board for CBS News and CNN, and maintain Pluto TV as a free, ad-supported service;
  • meet negotiation obligations on affiliation terms for the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery basic cable portfolios, and reimburse up to $40 million of the states' costs.

Failure could force the sale of Miramax, a $30 million payment for each film shortfall and the divestiture of certain cable networks. The filing's own assessment is that "These commitments restrict how and when we release films and will increase our costs. They may also limit our ability to realize the synergies we expect from the WBD Merger." On the call, Ellison took a different view: "The short answer is all of this was planned for and has no negative impacts on our plan." Kreiz confirmed that carriage talks for the two cable portfolios will be negotiated separately, as the decree requires.

Litigation has trailed the closing. In a private antitrust suit led by consumer Pamela Faust, the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted Skydance's motion to dismiss the amended complaint on October 21, 2026, and on November 2 denied the plaintiffs' request for an injunction to keep the acquired assets separate. The Writers Guild of America settled its suit on September 21, 2026, and the company has received demand letters from purported Class B holders seeking books and records related to the merger, according to the 10-Q.

Streaming: a bundle, a shared platform and fewer numbers

Paramount+ and HBO Max will be sold together in a bundle starting in early 2027, the first step toward a single service. The plan was set out in March 2026, when PPC Land reported that Paramount+ and HBO Max would combine into a service with about 200 million subscribers. The letter now puts the aggregate at 203 million for Paramount+, HBO and HBO Max, with Pluto TV at about 75 million monthly active users.

That 203 million needs care. A footnote says it uses each company's historical definition, counts only HBO and HBO Max on the Warner side, excludes Discovery+ and does not adjust for overlap. Subtracting Paramount+'s 82.2 million leaves about 121 million for HBO and HBO Max, a PPC Land calculation that should not be compared directly with earlier HBO Max totals built on different definitions.

The technical work is moving faster than last time. Moving Pluto TV onto the Paramount+ platform took about 18 months; the company now aims to align the Paramount+ and HBO Max back ends "within a year of closing," citing its combined technology team and AI tools. "Running the services on a unified backend system lowers our cost to operate, speeds up product development, and gives us shared personalization and monetization capabilities across our free and subscription offerings," the letter says. Pluto TV, the company's FAST service, added 14 channels from the Warner Bros. library in the week before the results, and more than 25 classic series now account for over a quarter of its on-demand viewing.

Distribution partners got a measured answer. Rich Greenfield of LightShed Partners asked whether the bundle would be sold only direct, given existing arrangements with Amazon Channels, Roku, YouTube Primetime Channels and a bundle with Disney+ and Hulu. Ellison said the company sees value in "a predominantly direct business" but must decide where it can get "additional reach through others," calling it "a balancing act." PPC Land has covered how such arrangements can break down, including the February 2025 dispute in which Paramount channels faced removal from YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels.

The reporting will also thin out. "Beginning with Q4'26 results and in line with other leading DTC players in the industry, we will no longer provide quarterly subscriber disclosures," the letter states, promising milestones and engagement figures instead. Guidance moves to an annual basis too. "We're not managing towards short-term quarterly targets," Cinelli said.

Warner Bros. film slate drags on the fourth quarter

The first consolidated quarter starts with a warning. According to the letter, "the near-term performance of the Warner Bros. film slate in Q4, including films already released quarter-to-date, has underperformed," and the company expects "slower revenue growth and a profit impact of up to $200 million vs. prior expectations for Q4." Cinelli framed it as "a $200 million headwind to adjusted EBITDA in Q4."

Ellison did not dress it up. "We've now taken on another company with mixed results across its business," he said, crediting HBO Max for consistent revenue growth while naming the film slate as the main headwind. Kreiz said Warner Bros. Discovery had "delivered the expected results through the close with the one area of softness in the movie studio." The fourth-quarter film calendar includes Dune: Part Three on December 18 and The Angry Birds Movie 3 on December 23, while the HBO series Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone premieres on Christmas Day.

For Paramount on its own, the company says it remains on track for the high end of its 2026 profitability range at $3.9 billion of adjusted EBITDA. Nine-month adjusted EBITDA was $3.26 billion, which implies about $640 million for a standalone fourth quarter, against $674 million a year earlier, a PPC Land calculation. Those standalone figures will not be reported separately once results are consolidated.

Outlook to 2030

For 2027, management expects continued strong direct-to-consumer revenue growth, higher studio revenue and higher pro forma adjusted EBITDA, driven by underlying growth and the synergy ramp. Cinelli added a cash marker: "But on cash flow, we do expect to be breakeven or better next year, including our cost to achieve synergies." He also said the combined company was on track for about $4 billion of underlying free cash flow, excluding one-time transformation costs.

The medium-term targets are mid-single-digit annual revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA margins in the mid-20% range and more than $10 billion of free cash flow in 2030, while shifting "a meaningful majority of revenue and profit from TV to our streaming and studios businesses." Full 2027 guidance will come with fourth-quarter results, and an Investor Day is planned for the first half of 2027.

Artificial intelligence runs through the plan as a cost tool. Cinelli said: "We just launched an AI agent that's helping in our procure-to-pay area." Kreiz said the single ERP would be implemented "through Oracle Fusion." Ellison framed the creative stance: "First, in a world of AI slop, we think there will always be a premium for truly handcrafted storytelling," and "We also continue to believe that artificial intelligence is a tool for artists and will never be a replacement for them." He noted that the productivity gains he expects from AI tools are not in the financial model: "While none of this is forecast in our model."

The Oracle reference has a related-party dimension that the 10-Q discloses. Lawrence J. Ellison, David Ellison's father, is Oracle's chairman and a significant shareholder. Skydance paid Oracle $48 million in the first nine months of 2026 for software and support, and in February 2026 signed a six-year cloud infrastructure agreement with a total commitment of $300 million for "anticipated enterprise, data, and streaming workloads." RedBird's advisory affiliate received a $110 million transaction fee in October 2026 for merger and capital-raising advice, and a separate RedBird affiliate holds a three-year media transformation contract capped at $12 million a year.

Why this matters for the marketing community

The deal concentrates US television further. Skydance says it is the second-largest media distributor by share of US TV time after YouTube, based on Nielsen's Media Distributor Gauge for August 2026. In that report, YouTube reached a record 15.8% of US TV time and Paramount held 6.8% at distributor level. Nine months earlier, Nielsen's November 2025 data had Paramount at 8.9% and Warner Bros. Discovery at 5.3%. EMARKETER's forecast of six US TV majors by 2027, down from ten, anticipated exactly this kind of consolidation, and Fox's completed purchase of Roku on November 6 added another.

For buyers, three things follow from the documents. First, a single sales leadership across broadcast, cable and streaming, with sports sold through "a single partner," changes who buyers negotiate with for sports and cross-platform packages, even as the consent decree keeps cable carriage talks separate. Second, the company's own media buying is set to shrink by at least $1 billion out of about $5 billion, with more promotion moved onto owned platforms. Third, the subscriber metrics many planners used to size Paramount+ will stop arriving each quarter, leaving engagement figures chosen by the company.

The financial backdrop explains the urgency. Annual interest of about $6 billion, a 3% decline in advertising revenue in a political year, and a streaming segment whose margin is under 10% leave little room for error. Whether 21% Paramount+ revenue growth and a bundle in early 2027 can carry $87 billion of gross debt is the question the fourth-quarter results, the first to include Warner Bros. Discovery, will begin to answer.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Skydance Corporation, formerly Paramount Skydance, led by chairman and chief executive David Ellison, co-chief executive Ynon Kreiz and chief financial officer Dennis Cinelli, together with its controlling shareholders, the Ellison family and RedBird, and the sovereign and institutional investors that funded the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition.

What: Paramount Skydance's third-quarter 2026 results showed revenue up 5% to $7.0 billion, adjusted EBITDA flat at $1.0 billion, Paramount+ revenue up 21% and advertising revenue down 3%. The 10-Q and shareholder letter detailed the $97.4 billion Warner Bros. Discovery purchase, $72.1 billion of debt issued or assumed, an expected interest bill of about $6 billion a year, and a $6 billion savings plan that takes at least $1 billion from a marketing budget of about $5 billion.

When: The results, shareholder letter, 10-Q and earnings call were published on November 9, 2026, covering the quarter ended September 30, 2026. The acquisition closed on October 6, 2026.

Where: The company is based in New York and Los Angeles and its Class B shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange; the consent decree was entered in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, and the operations span more than 130 streaming markets.

Why: The quarter is the last before Warner Bros. Discovery is consolidated, and it sets the baseline for a company carrying about $87 billion of gross debt. For advertisers and agencies, the combined sales structure, the cut to the company's own media spending and the end of quarterly subscriber disclosure change how the second-largest US TV distributor after YouTube buys and sells media.