Skydance to Keep Both Lots, Organize by Medium
Under the terms of the state attorneys general settlement, Skydance — the merged entity formed by Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery — must hold onto the Paramount and Warner Bros. lots for a minimum of five years. Speaking Tuesday at a press event on the Paramount lot, shortly after the merger was completed, Skydance CEO David Ellison said the two lots, which have each traditionally contained both film and TV operations, would be arranged in a new way. He indicated film would probably sit on one lot and television/streaming on the other, with work shifting between them as needed, and also to the East Coast and the Santa Monica animation offices.[S1]
Judging by size alone — Warner Bros. in Burbank is considerably bigger than Paramount in Hollywood — the film side would probably be placed on the Paramount lot while television and streaming would go to the Warner Bros. lot. That kind of split would also fit with Paramount's famous arches, which are deeply tied to movie history and stand as an emblem of cinema's golden age, since it remains the sole major studio still based in Hollywood.[S1]
Executive Moves and Operational Changes
Under that arrangement, motion picture group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, who work out of Paramount, would stay put, as would Channing Dungey, who leads Warner Bros. Television Group and Skydance's basic cable networks and is based at Warner Bros. A cross-town relocation would instead be needed for George Cheeks, Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer of Skydance TV; JB Perrette, Co-Chair & Chief Business Officer of Skydance TV and DTC; Casey Bloys, Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer of DTC; plus CBS Studios President David Stapf, Paramount TV Studios President Matt Thunell and their respective teams.[S1]
Consolidating all television operations in one spot would return CBS Entertainment, CBS Studios and CBS Media Ventures to a studio lot, after those divisions vacated CBS Studios Center (Radford) following its 2022 sale and moved into the Sunset Gower offices in Hollywood, which also house other Paramount units. The merged streaming operations stand to gain considerably from being gathered in a single location, since they are presently spread across multiple sites between HBO Max and Paramount+, among them HBO's Culver City offices, the Paramount lot, and the Nickelodeon West Coast headquarters in Burbank.[S1]
Skydance's Direct-to-Consumer division, overseen by Bloys and Perrette, might relocate to the Warner Bros. Second Century Development next to the Warner Bros. lot, where HBO had planned to move and sublet its Ivy Station space before the parent company WBD's sale process paused those plans. Shifting divisions that currently lease office space in LA and the valley onto one of the two lots would also yield financial savings. At the press conference, Ellison said real estate optimization, together with technology and procurement, would be among the main contributors to the targeted $6 billion in synergies.[S1]
At first, Ellison and Kreiz will divide their time evenly between the two lots. Ellison explained that during the integration they would likely be at Warner Bros. more often, but that over the long term, as a single company, the split should be fully equal. Their plan is to keep offices on both lots and move between them according to what takes priority.[S1]
Water Tower Rebranded
The Warner Bros. water tower has already been repainted to add 'A Skydance Corporation' after the merger closed, according to a headline from Yahoo.[S2]
