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The Federal Communications Commission’s approval of the merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global comes with a lot of conditions on the content the company can produce across its programming, which includes CBS and Nickelodeon.
The FCC said in a statement Thursday that it approved Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of the media giant. Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, said that Americans “no longer trust the legacy national news media” and that Skydance had agreed to make “significant changes” at CBS.
“In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum,” Carr said in a statement.
“Today’s decision also marks another step forward in the FCC’s efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” he added.
As part of its commitment to “unbiased journalism,” Skydance has agreed to have an ombudsman for at least two years who will report to the new company’s president and evaluate complaints of bias. Specifics about how the ombudsman would be chosen or operate were not immediately clear, and the FCC did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
Skydance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The approval of the merger comes weeks after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. Trump sued the company over an interview with Kamala Harris that aired on “60 Minutes,” accusing CBS of “deceptive editing.”
Paramount said on July 2 that it agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit, which included funds to go toward Trump’s future presidential library. The settlement did not include an apology.
Critics, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, accused Paramount of folding to Trump in order to get approval for the merger, and media insiders told Business Insider at the time that they believed the settlement would help the company get the merger approved.
On July 7, Paramount Global’s board approved the merger with Skydance, creating “New Paramount” and ending a tumultuous dealmaking process.
The approval also came a week after CBS canceled “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” Lawmakers, including Warren and Sen. Adam Schiff, said the public deserved answers about whether it was politically motivated.
CBS said the cancellation was “purely a financial decision.”
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