It's true. Historically, many of these mergers haven't worked. A lot of these failures were because the companies doing the a didn't understand the entertainment industry,
During an Air Force One press briefing on Thursday, President Trump criticized network evening shows, complaining that "all they do is hit Trump. They're licensed. They're not allowed to do that." And back in July, Trump responded to Colbert's cancellation by saying that Kimmel was next. Not for nothing, but it was also in July when Paramount narrowly won approval from the FCC for its now-completed merger with Skydance.
Paramount Skydance, backed by the family of CEO David Ellison, is getting ready to make a bid to take over all of Warner Bros. Discovery before the two companies can go through with their plan to split, per a new report from The Wall Street Journal. If such a deal happens, it would put networks as diverse as CBS, CNN, TCM, and MTV under one roof and result in the combination of two historic Hollywood studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.
But as the summer fades to fall, the events that transpired this season have set the conditions for what's likely to be an even more eventful - to use a euphemism - end to the year. To that end, Digiday managing editor Sara Jerde joined Digiday Podcast hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to recap the stories of the summer and analyze what they portend for the rest of 2025 and beyond.
