NFL Watching Closely As Paramount Ownership Drama Unfolds

The future of CBS Sports parent company Paramount is now arguably more muddled than ever, as an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media appears no nearer to closing, and the company is now shedding more employees. 

Earlier this year, Paramount said it intended to close the large-scale deal with Skydance by the end of June. With less than three weeks to go before that target, the pact remains decidedly in limbo. Getting to closing requires Federal Communications Commission approval, and that assent is likely conflated with settling an ongoing legal battle between CBS News and U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Multiple reports have suggested a potential settlement under discussion that would see an eight-figure payout to Trump to resolve claims the network engaged in election interference by manipulating a 60 Minutes interview with Democratic challenger Kamala Harris. Former CBS Evening News anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, however, cautioned against such an agreement, even if it paved the way for the larger Skydance deal.

“It will be very damaging to CBS, to Paramount, to the reputation of those companies,” Pelley said on CNN. “I think many of the law firms that made deals with the White House are at this very moment regretting it. That doesn’t look like their finest hour.”

Paramount, meanwhile, said Tuesday that it will cut 3.5% of its domestic workforce, amounting to several hundred employees, in another round of layoffs, mirroring similar reductions recently at other major media companies such as Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. The latest round of staff cuts at Paramount also follows a 15% reduction last year.

“These changes are necessary to address the environment we are operating in and best position Paramount for success,” company co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins wrote in a staff memo.

Could the NFL Back Out?

Though CBS Sports has a broad portfolio of programming, including its shared March Madness coverage with TNT Sports, its NFL rights are a bedrock of the company and will be in any future iteration of the network. In the near term, that’s particularly true as CBS shows the largest number of games involving the Chiefs, the league’s top viewership draw. 

The NFL, however, has a clause that would allow it to open up its rights deal with CBS if there is an ownership change. In the case of Skydance, there is little immediate concern about that partner coming in, as the league has a broad-based partnership that includes shared ownership of the studio’s sports vertical. 

Still, any ownership change would be reviewed, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last summer.

“We’re obviously paying close attention to the process,” Goodell said then. “We know Skydance. They’ve done a terrific job with our relationship. So we’ll look at the structure of the deal. We’ll see how it impacts us. We’ll see how it impacts our business, and we’ll make the best decision for the NFL at that point.”

Skydance’s backers also include the billionaire Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners.

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the majority owner of Front Office Sports.