Skydance Co-CEO On Prospect Of TV Studios Merging: “We’re Not Looking To Reduce Output Production”

Paramount’s $110B acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has come without any consolidation of the two companies’ film and TV studios — at least for now. On the TV side, that involves Warner Bros. Television Group, run by Channing Dungey, CBS Studios, headed by David Stapf, and Paramount TV Studios, led by Matt Thunell, remaining standalone entities within the combined Skydance company, all overseen by George Cheeks, Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer, Skydance TV. At a press conference held on the Paramount lot Tuesday afternoon, hours after the transaction closed, Skydance CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz were asked how long the three entities will stay separate and if consolidating backend operations is on the table. “When it comes to the TV studios, it’s about scale,” Kreiz said. “We’re not looking to reduce output production. It’s about efficient operation, and we have plans how to achieve that while still maintaining creative labels, creative parts to ensure that creativity still continues to flow, and we attract the best creators.” Watch on Deadline Making operations efficient is important as Ellison and his team at Paramount had promised Wall Street $6 billion in synergy savings post-merger. Later in the press conference, Kreiz elaborated on his comments when he and Ellison were asked again whether departments from the three TV studios may get consolidated en route to a potential full merger and if the studios would compete for talent and projects in the meanwhile. “You need to to keep certain creative parts independent and have them run and operate semi-autonomously,” Kreiz said, adding, “In the sense that the company is still one platform, we would coordinate and align and not compete directly. There would still be an element of different teams trying put together great projects and create something that stands out in a crowded market. You cannot aggregate that under one theme in terms of the creative process.” For comparison, it took Disney six years after the acquisition of Fox assets to fully merge the company’s three TV studios — 20th Television, ABC Signature and Touchstone Television — which was done in two stages.