“Regulators looked closely at editorial independence issues when considering this merger. It will be interesting to see whether the new owners live up to those promises in the future.”
–Shruti Gurudanti, director of corporate transactions at Rose Law Group
By Sarah Whitten | CNBC
The Federal Communications Commission cleared the way Thursday for an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media.
The deal, which was announced more than a year ago, includes the CBS broadcast television network, Paramount Pictures and the Nickelodeon channel.
“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly,” Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, wrote in a statement Thursday. “It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”
Carr said Skydance had made written commitments to ensure the new company’s programing would have a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum. Skydance also said it would hire a third-party impartial outsider to report to the president of the new company to evaluate complaints of bias.
