Former NBCUniversal and Paramount Skydance executive Jeff Shell is making a comeback to the entertainment industry with plans to launch a private investment vehicle focused on acquiring and managing linear television assets, two individuals familiar with the matter told TheWrap.
Shell’s new venture would look to acquire or invest in the declining assets, which include cable TV networks, individual TV stations or station groups, with plans to use the cash they throw off to build out adjacent businesses — a strategy similar to the Comcast cable network spinoff Versant.
Shell is in talks with Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners to back the new venture, though the size of the private equity firm’s commitment will be dependent on the individual deals identified. It is not expected to launch until the first or second quarter of 2027, after Shell’s noncompete with Paramount expires in April.
Representatives for Shell and RedBird declined to comment. Puck was the first to report the news.
Shell’s latest venture comes after he exited his role as the president and a board member of David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance in April. The departure, which was his second from a media company in three years, came after Shell was sued by whistleblower and Las Vegas gambler R.J. Cipriani.
Cipriani had accused Shell of failing to pay him for crisis communications services and leaking material, non-public information to him, including details about Paramount’s $7.7 billion UFC media rights deal and the company’s plans at the time to sweeten its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
An internal investigation into Cipriani’s claims conducted by Paramount at the time found that the allegations did not establish a securities law violation. They added that Shell was “taking forceful legal action” and elected to transition out of his role.
Prior to being recruited by David Ellison, Shell was ousted from NBCUniversal in 2023 over allegations of sexual harassment from former CNBC correspondent Hadley Gamble, with whom he admitted to having an “inappropriate relationship.”
He would ultimately land at RedBird, which helped fund Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount and the $47 billion in equity financing for the Ellison family’s $110 billion takeover of WBD. Shell officially joined the Paramount Skydance leadership team after the announcement of the merger in July 2024.
In the months since Shell’s exit, Ellison closed the Warner Bros. Discovery merger and renamed the combined company Skydance. Cardinale serves as a member of Skydance’s board of directors and RedBird recently tripled its total investment in the combined company to $6 billion.
In addition to Shell’s new venture and Skydance, RedBird’s investment portfolio in the media, entertainment and sports space includes Puck, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, Affleck’s InterPositive, Banijay Entertainment, Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro’s Mari, EverPass Media, Front Office Sports, the United Football League, Everpass Media and more.
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