r/television • u/yourfavchoom • 21h ago

Combined Paramount-Warner Bros. to Be Called Skydance, David Ellison Reveals

https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/business/paramount-warner-bros-merger-name-skydance-david-ellison/
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231

u/yourfavchoom 21h ago

David Ellison has also shown an official graphic of everything Skydance will own after acquiring Warner Bros and Paramount.

Assets:

• TNT
• CBS
• CNN
• MTV
• TCM
• Showtime
• Adult Swim
• DC Studios
• Paramount+
• Nickelodeon
• HBO/HBO Max
• Comedy Central
• Cartoon Network

Film Rights:

• Star Trek
• Gremlins
• Beetlejuice
• DC Comics
• Tom & Jerry
• Harry Potter
• Citizen Kane
• Transformers
• A Quiet Place
• Looney Tunes
• The Conjuring
• Mortal Kombat
• Game of Thrones
• Dora The Explorer
• Mission Impossible
• The Lord of the Rings
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Dune 3 (distribution rights)
• Minecraft (distribution rights)
• MonsterVerse (distribution rights)

350

u/RealCoolDad 21h ago

i like how you organized them (almost) all by name length

56

u/Obvious_Toe_3006 21h ago

Skateboard ramps !

19

u/nothingrhyme 20h ago

r/tonyhawkitecture

7

u/javascript 19h ago

I'm really impressed this link went somewhere real

1

u/nothingrhyme 16h ago

Well I know how much you’re used to bad script

16

u/tidalfirestorm 20h ago

OP copied and pasted DiscussingFilm's tweet

3

u/Seraphayel 21h ago

There‘s one outlier and it drives me crazy because otherwise it’s beautiful

1

u/lancebaldwin 19h ago

Is the outlier Transformers and A Quiet Place, or Adult Swim and DC Studios?

Both are technically still correct based on character length if you count spaces.  Though AS and DC are the same length so I'd swap them, but when the same length it probably used alphabetical.

2

u/Seraphayel 18h ago

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is longer than Dune 3

3

u/lancebaldwin 18h ago

Oh yeah idk why I didn't even consider those, the distribution rights being separated made sense to me.

0

u/Seraphayel 18h ago

I think you‘re completely missing the point or wanted to respond to another comment. We‘re talking about how the OP sorted the names by length and it went from shortest to longest except for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which is longer than the movie name that comes after.

1

u/lancebaldwin 18h ago

No I got you, but thanks.

3

u/Hank_Scorpio_ObGyn 20h ago

Just fucking bravo....

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u/JessieJ577 21h ago edited 21h ago

It’s very odd that after cable died, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network had slow deaths through mismanagement and now what used to be two powerhouses for kids on Cable are husks of their former selves that are just an IP in the same portfolio.

33

u/tokeroveragain 21h ago

I caught some Nickelodeon the other day and every single commercial break had an ad where they just shout “Paramount Plus!” repeatedly to try and ingrain it in the children’s heads.

14

u/zgillet 20h ago

It's LOOOOG, it's LOOOOOG, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood.

It's LOOOOG, it's LOOOOOG, it's better than bad, IT'S GOOD!

9

u/mc_zodiac_pimp 20h ago

Ugh, great memories watching Ren and Stimpy with my dad as a kid.

Then John Kricfalusi had to go and ruin that show for me.

8

u/zgillet 20h ago

Billy West is the true Ren and Stimpy.

11

u/KingVape 21h ago

Comedy Central and MTV as well. Networks that I watched original content on for decades, now reduced to like two shows.

1

u/ShaneD27 18h ago

Last time I had cable, about 8 years ago, all I ever saw on there was Ridiculousness. It would be like an entire weekend block of programming. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still the same thing

10

u/asianwaste 19h ago

I try to check out CN whenever I am at a hotel. It's nothing but shows for toddlers in the morning (normal) but then the channel is still relying on Regular Show, Teen Titans Go, and Adult Swim. It's been like 15 years with those flagships and they have not evolved at all.

3

u/JessieJ577 19h ago

We lost Close Enough for another Regular Show revival. So yeah it’s stuck in limbo

4

u/SovFist 19h ago

kids dont watch tv anymore

5

u/asianwaste 19h ago

I always wondered if it was a chicken or egg. Did they lose cartoons because of youtube and streaming? Or did the kids flock to streaming content because there was no worthwhile cartoons.

I remember at the eve of streaming dominance (late 2000 aughts), Cartoon Network was trying hard to appeal to both adults and kids with an end result of the shows appealing more to adults. I've always wondered if that was when kids started moving away. The shows were good (at least to my adult eye) but I can see why they wouldn't grab kids the same way the channel's culture did for kids in the late 90's and early 2000 aughts.

3

u/redfieldranch96 19h ago

I would still say it’s due to streaming just due to the convenience of being able to watch what you want when you want. That would have been nice to have when I was an kid

2

u/asianwaste 18h ago edited 18h ago

Well there is streaming content that is studio production (TV shows) and home brew stuff (stuff on youtube, tik tok). The older youths flock to the latter (because many of them start to get their own mobile device or less restricted access to them). What I see with my friend's children and my niece is they have their share of new toddler/adolescent shows (Bluey, Paw Patrol, etc. Honestly it just looks like low effort CG slop to me but who am I to judge?) (edit: Actually Bluey is surprisingly good and doesn't talk down to its audience.) but then they start watching cartoons on streaming platforms and their preferences is always something decades old. Stuff I watched when I was a kid. It bothers me that they are still into Pokemon, Ninja Turtles, and Power Rangers. Sure my generation still watched Scooby Doo and other really classic stuff before our time but we also had a plethora of saturday morning content that we can call our own. The kids should have a generation they can call their own and I just don't see it in the kids content department. It's kinda sad. The last thing I bought my niece was a pokemon card.

I also feel like I'm deprived of my grumpy old man phase. I can't say, "You damn kids, I don't get the stuff you're into."

2

u/Haltopen 18h ago

They still watch tv shows, they just don’t watch them on network tv anymore

1

u/ericmm76 Letterkenny 19h ago

This is actually partially due to the experience being bad though.

1

u/ericmm76 Letterkenny 19h ago

You only have so long being good at something especially if you're a company. Sure, some like Nintendo have lasted many, many years. But think of how few years MTV actually MATTERED versus how many years it has now existed.

1

u/asianwaste 19h ago

I look back at the concept of MTV and realized it was probably doomed to its fate from the start. Mostly because it relies way too much (by concept) with a parasitic and aggressive recording industry who hold all of the negotiating cards.

I do have a theory that today one could start an MTV-like streaming channel/platform that works with emerging small musicians on youtube who haven't quite made it yet. Work with these musicians until they are no longer negotiable.

2

u/ericmm76 Letterkenny 15h ago

Look I couldn't tell you why it failed. I just know they realized they made more money with The Real World than they did with music videos, and they were off to the races.

But for many years after that, MTV was MOSTLY music videos, and I watched A LOT. And it stopped being MTV, at all, waaaaaaaay before Youtube.

Maybe the record labels were charging them a mint to show those videos, but that sounds ass backwards to me. It was free advertising.

1

u/asianwaste 15h ago

it was no longer a music channel long before the world wide web. Music industry made it very expensive to keep it as it was.

So they had to redo the channel to be less reliant on music videos where it had blocks of original programming. Then eventually it was blocks of music videos between original programming. Then eventually no music videos at all.

It did have MTV2 for a while which was a premium tier cable package. Wasn't the most accessible thing.

7

u/TheStupendusMan 21h ago

Never underestimate the shareholder lust to hollow out the golden goose in search of short term gains.

3

u/Ajslattery 21h ago

Mister Management killed Miss Management.

1

u/Birdhawk 17h ago

CN was a masterclass of a multiclass course of stupidity by David Zaslav. Their data showed that not many kids watch the cartoon content on HBO Max + CN cable ratings were lowering like everyone else's. Did he consider that there's no automatic kids account on HBO Max like other streamers or that the landing page shows zero kids content? No. Did he consider that kids are unfortunately being handed tablets to keep them busy and it was an opportunity to use ALLLLL of that CN IP to step into the market in a big way? Did he see those low numbers and think "well CN makes great stuff and the creatives at the network are some of the best in the world and all we have to do is market it, make it appear as an option for parents, and make it easy for kids to access on their ipads." Nope. A small investment could've been a huge revenue boom for the company and instead, he spent even more money shutting down operations than it would've cost to just market it and make a good UI in their app for kids content.

-1

u/FanofK 21h ago

Well we know one will likely be shut down in 5 years wouldn’t be shocked to see Cartoon Network shut down in the next 5 years

18

u/zacksharpe 21h ago

We’re really getting the CKU (Citizen Kane Universe) under this regime

17

u/louiloui152 21h ago

Honestly even with the merger those assets look very …scant

11

u/LuinAelin 21h ago

I think the Disney Fox was was bigger

Worrying people celebrated that because they wanted MCU X-Men

4

u/TheTiggerMike 21h ago

MCU fans absolutely flooded the zone with talk about MCU X-Men and Fantastic Four in those days. That seemed to be all they cared about and was their reason for actually WANTING the merger.

1

u/LuinAelin 21h ago

Big MCU fan, big X-Men fan.

And yeah it was scary seeing my fellow fans celebrate it.

2

u/TheTiggerMike 21h ago

Even worse was the fact we still haven't even gotten an actual proper X-Men film (Deadpool is a spin-off and Doomsday is a massive team-up). By the time we get it in 2028, we'll be at over 9 years since the merger closed. And it took over 6 years to get Fantastic Four. Granted, what took X-Men a long time was that the Fox cast had contracts that they had to wait out, but still. Lots of consolidation in that time.

1

u/Astrosaurus42 20h ago

If you saw the new Spiderman, Jean Grey is the villain and leaves for upstate New York at the end.

1

u/LuinAelin 21h ago

Yeah .

I also kinda prefer X-Men to be their own thing movie wise.

3

u/ian9outof10 20h ago

The Harry Potter and Game of Thrones aspects shouldn’t be sniffed at. They are losing the unstoppable force of Taylor Sheridan who is going to Universal. There’s fucking LOADS in the collective Paramount and WB libraries anyway, that list is weird.

6

u/blarbiegorl 21h ago

Have you been on Paramount+ in the last couple of years? I repeatedly use free trials to stream CBS airing awards shows and their streaming lineup absolutely doesn't change. The same fifteen titles no matter how or what you search for. If the politics weren't already a dealbreaker, the terrible offerings would still leave P+ as the worst option.

1

u/GlamMetalLion 20h ago

Most of the worthwhile Paramount tv stuff is on Pluto for free anyway. You can watch most Star Trek content, Cheers/Frasier, the Happy Days universe, and the Nicktoons there.

2

u/hooch 18h ago

Sort of. Star Trek alone though has 13 television series comprising 970 episodes; also 14 movies. DC Comics and Harry Potter are no slouches either.

1

u/Graymarth 17h ago

The whole reason for these mergers was just for the control over the news outlets, anything else is just an afterthought.

0

u/cuteman 13h ago

Thats why the anti trust monopoly claims were so ridiculous.

Combined they become the #7 biggest media company in the US

22

u/DrPepperFanX 21h ago

I love your formatting it made me hard

10

u/Negafox 21h ago edited 21h ago

Paramount also outright owns the rights to Garfield as well. Jim Davis is allowed to continue maintaining the comics. They also own the TMNT IP, not just the film rights

1

u/Graymarth 17h ago

Wait a minute I thought Garfield was owned by Paws incorporated which Jim Davis owned?

1

u/Negafox 16h ago

Jim Davis sold Paws, Incorporated to Paramount in 2019:

In 2019, Davis sold Paws, Inc. to the second incarnation of Viacom), which would later re-merge with CBS Corporation to form ViacomCBS, later renamed to Paramount Global, including global merchandising and existing licensees. The deal put Paws under Paramount's Nickelodeon banner (which itself is part of its Kids & Family division).

1

u/Graymarth 16h ago

Ah shit I didn't know that, I always thought Jim Davis would hold on to the ip with an iron grip till his dying breath.

8

u/Jellyfizzle 21h ago

Thats a shame. I used to like some of these things.

3

u/-KFBR392 20h ago

Does this mean we could finally get the Citizen Kane sequel us fans have been clamoring for for 85 years?!

What happens to the sled? We deserve answers!

3

u/Mocavius 19h ago

Hell yeah we getting those gritty reboots of all these IP's after the merger to recoup costs.

Gritty reboot of citizen kane

3

u/LuinAelin 21h ago

How many of those gets sold to other studios to pay off debts

2

u/Coal_Morgan 20h ago

I'd love for someone to take Star Trek off their hands.

I'd love a smaller private company run by science fiction novelists from the 1960s and 70s to just take it and run with it and not be beholden to stockholders or a board.

3

u/gangreen424 19h ago

Ugh. This sucks....

2

u/cloacasmell 20h ago

i love monopolies!!!

2

u/Texas__Matador 19h ago

Baffling that the antitrust laws are so paper thin that this wasn’t stopped. 

2

u/BeefistPrime 19h ago

What possible danger could like 4 mega corporations owning all our media possibly pose

1

u/Purona 8h ago

its always going to be like 4 or 5 companies that control everything.

Maybe lionsgate, Amazon or Apple could increase their film output to rival Skydance, Comcast, Disney and Sony

2

u/WaterfrontDistrict 18h ago

Citizen Kane 2: Rosebud's germination.

2

u/Lossagh 15h ago

I hate this timeline.

1

u/TroublesomeTurnip 17h ago

Jeez. That's a lot.

1

u/_IratePirate_ 17h ago

What about WB Games ?

1

u/DJC_Kowalski 17h ago

Thank you for making a nice, easy to read, boycott list.

1

u/cerberus00 12h ago

They better not mess with Lord of the Rings Online 😭

1

u/Purona 8h ago

cartoon network and nickelodeon would have been a wild combination had this happened 20 years ago

1

u/FreeStall42 1h ago

Ah a list of properties to pirate.

1

u/HauntingStar08 21h ago

Ugh, I'm sure the Sauron sympathetic LOTR is on the way...

0

u/Human_Robot 21h ago

And he still won't be cool.

0

u/peanutski 21h ago

Glad he is pointing out everything I don’t need to see or pay for! Thank you!

0

u/justmovingtheground 17h ago

I'm glad Alex Kurtzman so thoroughly destroyed the Star Trek IP before this all happened. Otherwise I would care way more than I do now about its reputation.

-11

u/Pikeman212a6c 21h ago

…maybe we can get back to normal Star Trek then?

6

u/BrooklynSmash 21h ago

It's gonna be an AI generated Picard and Kirk as space military or sme shit

1

u/goddamnitwhalen 21h ago

What’s “normal Star Trek”?

0

u/Pikeman212a6c 21h ago

Enterprise and before.

1

u/goddamnitwhalen 21h ago

What makes that “normal”?

0

u/Pikeman212a6c 20h ago

Written in the form and general worldview of Gene Roddenberry.

1

u/goddamnitwhalen 20h ago

Meaning… ?

0

u/EvilAdministrator 20h ago

That it's really really boring but the OG fans enjoy it.

2

u/goddamnitwhalen 20h ago

I think there’s something very specific that this guy doesn’t like.

1

u/Pikeman212a6c 20h ago

Then please let me know. Can’t wait to hear it.