Paramount Global

One Astor Plaza in Times Square, a glass tower packed with broadcast studios, served as the nerve center for a media giant that touched nearly every screen. Paramount Global, known as ViacomCBS until February 2022, was born on December 4, 2019, when Shari Redstone forced a reunion of the two halves of her family's empire. The original Viacom had split from CBS in 2005; now, under the controlling umbrella of National Amusements, they came back together. The rebrand to Paramount aimed to leverage the century-old Hollywood studio's global recognition, wrapping everything from the CBS Evening News to MTV's reality shows under one mountain-shaped logo.

The company's reach was staggering. Paramount Pictures, founded in 1912, stood as one of the last independent major studios. The CBS broadcast network, with its iconic eye, anchored a portfolio that included cable channels like Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, Showtime, and the Paramount Network. Streaming ambitions lived through Paramount+ and the free ad-supported Pluto TV, which together amassed tens of millions of subscribers. Internationally, the company owned Channel 5 in the UK, Network 10 in Australia, Telefe in Argentina, and Chilevisión, plus over 170 networks reaching 700 million households across 180 countries.

Yet size didn't guarantee stability. The streaming wars demanded enormous investment, and Paramount, with a market cap around $8 billion, struggled to keep pace with Disney and Netflix. Debt mounted, linear TV revenue declined, and the company became a takeover target. On August 7, 2024, after months of negotiations and a 30-day go-shop period, Paramount Global merged with Skydance Media, creating Paramount Skydance. David Ellison, Skydance's founder, took over as CEO, while Shari Redstone's National Amusements received $2.4 billion in cash. The standalone era of Paramount Global ended, but its assets, the films, the networks, the streaming services, continued under new ownership.[edit]