GREEN LIGHT

Paramount Merger Approved After $16 Million Trump Settlement

The FCC has signed off on the merger with Skydance.

The Federal Communications Commission has signed off on a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, just weeks after Paramount agreed to pay a $16 million settlement towards Donald Trump’s future presidential library. FCC chair Brendan Carr, tapped by Trump for the role, said the deal was approved after the agency received commitments from Skydance to make significant changes at Paramount’s CBS broadcast division. “Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately and fairly,” Carr said in a statement provided to The New York Times. “It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.” Paramount co-CEO Chris McCarthy will reportedly leave the company once the deal is complete. The pending merger has been highly publicized and dogged by controversies. Last week, Stephen Colbert announced that CBS was cancelling The Late Show, prompting a celebratory lap by Trump and suggestions that the decision had political motivations, including from Colbert himself on the air. South Park, which also airs on a Paramount-owned network, similarly took aim at both Trump and its parent company in a new episode. Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a legally questionable lawsuit that Trump brought against CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that he claimed was deceptively edited. Carr and Paramount have both said the lawsuit was not related to the FCC’s review of the merger.