Afternoon Edition

October 6, 2026

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After a year of corporate drama, plenty of legal friction, and several points of potential collapse, Paramount closed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, giving rise to the newly formed Skydance Corp., a company that is set to reshape much of sports media.

—Eric Fisher

First Up

The NBA’s initial proposal to collaborate with EuroLeague has been rejected, in part because it undervalued EuroLeague, sources tell FOS.
The NFL Referees Association said Tuesday it will contest the NFL’s suspensions of two game officials for on-field incidents involving players Sunday.
An attorney for Braiden Bell is seeking reinstatement for the broadcaster after he was fired by the Trail Blazers for tweets that he sent as a teenager.
UCLA invested heavily in its football coaching staff this season—and it’s already paying off as the Bruins’ 4–0 start has college football taking notice.

Newly Formed Skydance Is a Force in Sports Media

Mike Blake-Reuters

After a year of corporate drama, plenty of legal friction, and several points of potential collapse, Skydance Corp. is officially born.

CBS Sports parent company Paramount closed its much-discussed, $110 billion acquisition of TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, giving rise to the newly combined Skydance in a company that is set to reshape much of sports media, as well as Hollywood.

With the closing, Skydance co-CEO and chair David Ellison has prevailed in one of the most dramatic media sagas in U.S. history.

“Getting here has been quite a journey. Over the past year and beyond, it has taken hard work, perseverance, and commitment, with many challenges along the way—but we did it!” Ellison and Skydance co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a company memo sent Tuesday to employees. “Bringing Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery together fulfills a vision that began with Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount: to build the next-generation media and entertainment company, powered by creativity and technology.”

Long Road

The closing of the deal arrived nearly a year to the day after WBD put itself up for sale. Among the key developments since October 2025:

Streaming giant Netflix originally struck an $82.7 billion deal to acquire WBD’s streaming and studios businesses, a structure that would have left the rest of the assets, including TNT Sports, to continue separately.
Ellison and Paramount mounted an effort to outbid Netflix’s deal and ultimately struck their own agreement to buy all of WBD.
Paramount detailed a plan to combine its own Paramount+ and WBD’s HBO Max into a single streaming service.
The U.S. Department of Justice signed off on the deal, with Ellison maintaining a close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.
A dozen blue-leaning states, led by California, challenged the deal on antitrust grounds, and then agreed to a trial schedule that would have pushed the case to March 2027.
Weighed down in part by Ellison’s threat to relocate Paramount out of California, the states reached a settlement with the company last month that included no resale of acquired WBD assets.
Ellison chose the Skydance name as its new identity for the combined company, and appointed Kreiz, formerly the CEO of Mattel, as co-CEO.

With the closing of the deal, RedBird Capital Partners also invested an additional $4 billion in the company, bringing its total investment in Skydance to about $6 billion. Ellison’s father, billionaire Larry Ellison, is also financially backing the merger, as are LionTree and sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.

“By applying our owner-operator model to Paramount and WBD’s unmatched portfolio of iconic franchises, premium original programming, and live sports rights, we can protect that legacy while building for a media landscape that’s undergoing transformational change,” said RedBird managing partner and Skydance board director Gerry Cardinale.

What’s Next

Skydance’s sports operations are now a major industry force with touchpoints in every major pro sport and league, with the exception of the NBA, and that breadth of rights is perhaps rivaled by only ESPN.

David Berson, previously CBS Sports CEO, will lead Skydance Sports, with the move not a surprise given that Berson’s prior boss, CBS president and CEO George Cheeks, is now co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance TV. Berson’s sports counterpart at WBD, Luis Silberwasser, is leaving the company.

That will likely be just the start of widespread layoffs within Skydance, and not just within sports, as duplication of roles between the two companies is extensive. Skydance also begins its new corporate life with about $80 billion in debt, and investors will be eager to see progress in lowering that number.

Ellison and Kreiz acknowledged that in the company memo.

“Integrating two companies will bring change, including difficult decisions that affect our workforce,” the pair wrote. “We are committed to handling this process thoughtfully and respectfully.”

Already, Fitch Ratings has downgraded Skydance’s long-term debt to BB from BB+.

“The downgrade reflects materially higher leverage after the acquisition and significant execution and integration risks,” Fitch said regarding its new rating. “It also reflects uncertainty about the company’s ability to achieve its stated synergies, which are material to its deleveraging target. The combined company faces structural pressures on linear revenues, streaming competition, and hit-driven content risk.”

Because the closing happened after Sept. 30, Paramount is paying WBD investors $41.9 million in ticking fees. Had the antitrust fight with the states continued, those fees would have run into the billions.

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, in which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the primary investor in Front Office Sports.

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ONE BIG FIG

Super Bowl Backups

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

$12 million

That’s how much Disney is reportedly seeking from advertisers looking to secure commercial placements for Super Bowl LXI—even though ad space sold out months ago. The placements Disney is looking to sell are essentially replacement ads in the event a committed brand backs out of its spot.

On Disney’s August earnings call, the company said it had completely sold out of its inventory of 30-second ads, which the company had originally sought $10 million for, well past the $8 million mark for much of the ad sales for Super Bowl LX. After some pushback from advertisers on pricing, however, many Super Bowl LXI units are thought to have instead sold in the range of $8 million to $9 million each.

“Our upfront and a sold-out Super Bowl LXI make it clear: Brands see Disney as a must-have investment, one built on our ability to deliver audiences at scale, across live events and streaming, all year long,” Disney president of global advertising Rita Ferro said at the time.

LOUD AND CLEAR

Private Equity to the Rescue

Eloisa Sanchez-Reuters

“We found a white knight.”

—How LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil described BC Partners, the private equity and credit firm that is set to provide $300 million of financing for the league should it successfully emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which it filed for last month after the Saudi PIF ended its funding of the league.

“We’re moving from a Saudi-type business plan to a—as I like to say—a ‘business’ business plan,” O’Neil said Tuesday at the Sportico Invest conference in London. BC Partners Credit head Ted Goldthorpe said the new LIV can be “really complementary” to the PGA Tour, despite being a rival golf tour since launching in 2022.

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STATUS REPORT

Three Down, One Push

Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Yankees ⬇ New York is on the brink after a 5–2 defeat to the Rays riddled by a series of disastrous defensive errors. The Yankees made four errors in total, including three in a farcical first inning, and Tampa Bay now leads the ALDS 2–0 heading back to New York. That’s despite the Rays having a smaller payroll by more than $211 million. At $308.3 million, the Yankees have the third-highest payroll in MLB—behind only the Mets and Dodgers—while the Rays’ $95.6 million payroll is the third lowest in the league.

China Open ⬇ After halting play during her match against Sun Xinran on Monday, Coco Gauff said she faced racist and hateful comments on social media. Gauff raised her hand during the point after noticing the electronic boards behind the court flickering; in her reply to the criticism she noted that she only did so after this happened twice. “It was an unfortunate situation but it is out of my control,” Gauff wrote. “I think it’s weird I’m getting hate for following the rules.”

Jannik Sinner ⬇ The Italian announced he is shutting down for the rest of the season with the same knee injury that has kept him out since Wimbledon, missing the chance to defend his ATP Finals title in Turin. “At the moment, I also need to think about my long-term career,” Sinner said in a video message. Sinner earned more than $5 million for his undefeated ATP Finals triumph last year, a larger check than he has received for any of his Grand Slam titles. He will also relinquish his No. 1 spot in the rankings by the end of the year to Alexander Zverev, who will claim the top ranking for the first time in his career.

NFL travel plans ⬆⬇ Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said the team made the decision to travel Friday for its Sunday game against the Jaguars in London after “taking everything into account, jet lag included.” This comes after the Rams tried a similar approach for their heavy season-opening defeat to the 49ers in Australia, which led coach Sean McVay to declare that “sometimes you have a dumbass coach that makes travel plans that put you in a bad spot.” However, the Rams had more success with their late-travel strategy for a London game last year, when they beat the Jaguars 35–7 after a week of practice in Baltimore.