• by Wayne Friedman , July 24, 2025

With the backdrop of the $16 million lawsuit settlement by Paramount Global with President Trump, the TV-movie media company has received federal regulatory approval for its $8 billion deal to be bought by Skydance Media.

Skydance, the TV/movie production company based on the Paramount lot, will take control of the company in the coming weeks.

Skydance is led by CEO David Ellison.

For some time now, the deal's potential go-ahead has been heavily linked by analysts' assertions of allegations of political and business interference by Trump, which included a lawsuit against Paramount.

The lawsuit -- settled by Paramount agreeing to pay $16 million to Trump -- alleged bias over the editing of a video interview last year on “60 Minutes” with then Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

In recent days, Paramount added to the deal -- agreeing to hire an ombudsman at CBS News, as well as pledging not to implement any new DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies.

After Skydance's comments were received by the Federal Communications Commission recently, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pushed for a vote among its commissioners, which gave the deal approval in a 2-1 decision.

In a statement, Carr said Skydance will “adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media.”

Trump has said the deal is actually worth around $36 million, coming from an additional $20 million in promotional and advertising time or “similar programming” -- presumably on CBS or other Paramount networks.

Analysts believe any advertising and programming would be used to promote conservative and/or pro-Trump causes.

Last week, CBS announced it was cancelling the decades-old late night talk program “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” -- and that the move is being made as a “purely a financial decision,” according to George Cheeks, CBS president and co-chief executive of Paramount Global.

This came three days after Colbert, in a scathing comic manner, criticized Paramount's $16 million settlement with Trump during his opening monologue.