The American telecommunications regulator, the FCC, validated, Thursday, July 24, the acquisition of the global paramount media group by the Skydance production company, with changes in editorial line within the CBS channel, a very atypical condition.
The agreement comes at the end of a sequence which will have seen Paramount Solder, in early July, a legal litigation with Donald Trump, then announce the end of the program “The Late Show”, whose host, Stephen Colbert, is very critical of the American president.
The American authorities took a year to decide on the Skydance project, which put $ 8.4 billion (7 billion euros) on the table to take control of the built group on the legendary Centennial Studio Paramount.
The FCC not mentioned, in its press release, almost only aspects unrelated to the preservation of competition and the activities of the two companies, which are most often decisive in the regulator’s decision. The agency has notably obtained from Skydance the promise to adopt, within the CBS channel, owned by the group, “Measures likely to correct the biases that have undermined confidence [du public] in the national media “.
«Bon Thick Pot-De-Vin»
Donald Trump regularly criticized CBS, accusing him of being “Out of control”. In mid-April, he attacked the program “60 minutes”, guilty, according to him of defamation towards him, and said he was favorable to the fact that the director of the FCC sanctions the channel for his “Illegal behavior”. In October 2024, he attacked CBS in court, this time reproaching “60 minutes” for having misleaded an interview with his rival Democrat in the race for the presidency, Kamala Harris, a few weeks earlier.
In early July, Paramount agreed to pay $ 16 million to put an end to this procedure, in which the Republican billionaire asked for $ 20 billion in damages.
Several votes were then raised to denounce Paramount’s decision, accused of buying the president’s favors to obtain the green light from the FCC. Stephen Colbert, the presenter of the “Late Show”, a flagship program for the third part of the evening, described this payment as «Bon Thick Pot-De-Vin». “I do not know if it will be possible to restore me to confidence in this company”launched the sixty -something humorist.
A few days later, CBS warned of stopping the famous talk show after the 2025-2026 season, evoking a “Purely financial decision”.
“America deserves whether its program has been canceled for political reasons”reacted the Democratic Senator of Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren.
