Ellison Signals ‘Opportunistic’ Moves, Highlights CBS Sports Success

CBS Sports parent company Paramount is looking to be “opportunistic” in the market regarding potential acquisitions, even without mentioning Warner Bros. Discovery specifically in its first post-merger earnings report.

Making his first comments to Wall Street since leading Skydance Media’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount this past summer, company chair and CEO David Ellison avoided specifically referencing WBD but said the company is after greater scale.

“As it relates to [mergers and acquisitions], everything for us is going to tie back to, ‘Does it accelerate our core principles?’” Ellison said. “We’re fortunate that we have the balance sheet to be able to be opportunistic when we think M&A will accelerate our goals, but we’re also disciplined, long-term owner-operators.”

Ellison additionally cautioned, “There’s no must-have for us.”

The remarks arrived as WBD, the parent company of TNT Sports, has formally put itself up for sale, also drawing varying levels of interest from entities such as Netflix and NBC Sports parent company Comcast. Paramount has reportedly made multiple bids for WBD that have been rebuffed. 

“The company we acquired we believe has an incredible foundation, but there’s more work to be done,” Ellison said, referencing the original Skydance-Paramount deal. 

Company Results

Paramount, meanwhile, said it generated $6.7 billion in third-quarter revenue, with operating income of $324 million, and a $257 million net loss, though the losses began to wane after Skydance’s takeover closed in early August.

The company projects revenue growth of 1% to 4% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year in the prior regime, then $30 billion in total revenue for all of 2026. Layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, however, continue to be significant within Paramount, and the company detailed an updated plan to shed at least $3 billion in costs, up from a prior target of $2 billion. A majority of that figure will come from “non-labor” costs, but Paramount ultimately expects to slash more than 2,000 jobs. 

More specifically to sports, Paramount had strong praise for CBS Sports, which is in the midst of one of its strongest NFL seasons regarding viewership. A Week 9 game between the Chiefs and Bills in particular drew an average of 30.8 million, the league’s second-best audience so far this season. Paramount also lauded the recent acquisition of rights for UFC and Zuffa Boxing, calling both entities from TKO Group Holdings “highly complementary to our existing sports portfolio.”

Ellison said the deals “really make Paramount the home for combat sports.”

The initial earnings report from Paramount following the Skydance deal, however, contained no shortage of corporate speak. The phrase “North Star” was used to detail corporate priorities seven times in a letter to shareholders, and more than a dozen more times in the call with analysts. 

Editors’ note: RedBird Capital, a stakeholder in Paramount Skydance, is also an investor in Front Office Sports through RedBird IMI.