Paramount Skydance
Paramount Skydance was formed in August 2025 when David Ellison's Skydance Media bought National Amusements, the Redstone family holding company that controlled Paramount, and merged with Paramount Global.
In October 2026 it completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery and renamed itself Skydance, bringing Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, Warner Bros., HBO and CNN under one owner. Under chairman and CEO David Ellison it became the first major studio to denounce the pledge by film workers not to work with Israeli institutions "implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people," and placed career Israel advocate Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News.
Ellison family ownership
Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, holds about 35.5% of the voting interest in the company through his entity Sayonara LLC, and agreed to personally backstop $40.4 billion in equity financing for the Warner Bros. Discovery takeover. The Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners hold 100% of the voting shares of the combined company.
Larry Ellison is one of the largest private donors to the IOF. At the 2017 Friends of the IDF gala he gave $16.6 million to build facilities for IOF infantry battalions, declaring:
In my mind, there is no greater honor than supporting some of the bravest people in the world.
When the Ellisons agreed to buy Paramount in 2024, the Jerusalem Post ran a piece "written in cooperation with SkyDance" quoting a source boasting that David Ellison and the seller's heir hold "Zionist values" and "quietly donate quite a bit to the State of Israel and the IDF."
Oracle executive vice chair Safra Catz sits on Paramount's board. As Oracle CEO she told staff that the company's "commitment to Israel is second to none" and that employees who "don't agree with our mission to support the State of Israel" should leave.
David Ellison and the Israeli campaign against BDS
According to leaked emails of former IOF chief of staff Benny Gantz, David Ellison was recruited in December 2015 as an American backer of Gantz's "Counter-BDS Initiative," a plan to raise $1 million each from twelve donors to fund "state-of-the-art cyber technology as a soft weapon against BDS," staffed by "former IDF intel & cyber officers," to "detect, target & counter" critics of Israel. The Hollywood agent who brokered the introduction had forwarded Gantz a pitch from private intelligence firm Black Cube offering to "disrupt and disband" BDS groups' funding. He wrote to Gantz:
Benny. I spoke to david Ellison who is very interested in helping out with the BDS movement.
Ellison replied from his Skydance email account that he "very much" looked forward to "discussing everything you are working on."
Attacking the boycott of Israeli film institutions
In September 2025 more than 4,000 film workers signed the Film Workers for Palestine pledge refusing to work with Israeli festivals, broadcasters and production companies complicit in the genocide on Gaza. Paramount answered with a statement falsely presenting the institutional boycott as an attack on individuals: "We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers." Paramount board member Sherry Lansing signed the counter-letter accusing the pledge of "arbitrary censorship." A month later Warner Bros. Discovery, the target of Paramount's takeover bid and now part of the same company, became the second studio to reject the pledge, declaring:
We believe a boycott of Israeli film institutions violates our policies.
Weeks later Variety reported that Paramount "maintains a list of talent it will not work with because they are deemed to be 'overtly antisemitic.'" That is the label the company attaches to critics of Israel: in August 2026, after Mark Ruffalo, a pledge signatory, pointed to Oracle's technology for the IOF, Paramount Skydance accused him of "antisemitic tropes" and declared that "words like 'genocide' and 'apartheid'... aren't just wrong – they're a bridge too far."
Israeli propaganda on Paramount+
David Ellison personally picked up Red Alert, an Israeli drama about October 7 co-produced by Keshet Media Group and funded by the Jewish National Fund-USA and the Israel Entertainment Fund, calling it "a fast 'yes.'" It premiered on Paramount+ on the second anniversary of October 7, while, as Paramount's own employees pointed out, the company offered no equivalent programming on Palestinian experiences of the genocide. Ellison hosted the screening on the Paramount lot and said he "couldn't be prouder to support this series."
Censoring Gaza coverage
CBS News
Paramount silenced Palestinian perspectives before and after the Ellison takeover. In October 2024 the company cancelled an internal panel on the Arab-American experience of the genocide on Gaza less than two days before it was due, while holding three sessions on antisemitism. After 60 Minutes aired a Gaza segment in January 2025, the executive producer was told by people acting for Shari Redstone, who controlled Paramount through National Amusements: "Well, you're not going to do another Gaza story, are you?"
Under the Ellisons, a CBS staffer told Variety that layoffs "conspicuously fell on those whose reporting featured an anti-Israel bent," including Gaza correspondent Debora Patta.
CNN
CNN staff described the network's Gaza coverage as "journalistic malpractice" shaped by "a systemic and institutional bias within the network toward Israel." Internal memos obtained by the Guardian show CNN chief executive Mark Thompson ordered staff to keep reminding audiences that the Hamas attack was "the immediate cause of this current conflict," and required every Gaza casualty figure to be labelled "Hamas-controlled." All copy on Israel and Palestine had to be cleared by the Jerusalem bureau, where, staff said, Israeli official statements were rubber-stamped while Palestinian claims were delayed or never reported. Skydance kept Thompson in charge of CNN after the takeover.
Tony Blair and Gaza's "Board of Peace"
On closing the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, the company named Tony Blair a board advisor. Blair sits on the executive board of Trump's Board of Peace and the Gaza Executive Board, which oversee Gaza's governance, reconstruction and financing. Larry Ellison invested $130 million in the Tony Blair Institute between 2021 and 2023, with a further $218 million pledged.
Owning an Israeli media company
Paramount owns 100% of Ananey, a Tel Aviv producer that operates six Israeli pay-TV channels and the Israeli versions of Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central. As part of the acquisition Paramount committed to a joint venture capital fund with Ananey's founder, Gazella, investing in Israeli media and technology companies.
Sources:
- Ananey ViacomCBS Networks International Acquires Israeli Producer and Pay-TV Firm Ananey
- BBC Who is on Trump's 'Board of Peace' overseeing Gaza's reconstruction?
- Jack Poulson, All-Source Intelligence Exclusive: New owner of CBS coordinated with former Israeli military chief to counter the country's critics, according to leaked emails
- Middle East Eye New US TikTok owner funded Tony Blair and ensured Marco Rubio's loyalty to Israel: Report
- Los Angeles Times Paramount denounces boycott of Israeli film industry as Gaza conflict divides Hollywood
- Los Angeles Times Tensions build inside David Ellison's Paramount over Israel stance
- Responsible Statecraft Oracle execs: Love Israel or maybe this isn't the job for you
- Skydance Paramount Completes Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Creating a New Global Entertainment Leader, Skydance
- The Guardian CNN staff say network's pro-Israel slant amounts to 'journalistic malpractice'
- The Guardian 'We do not agree': Paramount criticizes Israeli film industry boycott
- The Guardian Ex-60 Minutes producer Bill Owens says bosses discouraged him from covering Gaza and Trump
- The Guardian Larry Ellison gives personal guarantee for Paramount takeover of Warner Bros Discovery
- The Guardian Mark Ruffalo fires back at Paramount Skydance after it accuses him of using 'antisemitic tropes'
- The Guardian Warner Bros Discovery says Israeli film boycott 'violates our policies'
- The Guardian Paramount completes $111bn acquisition of Warner Bros to form new media empire Skydance
- The Jerusalem Post Jewish business leaders transform media landscape with $8 billion deal
- TheWrap Larry Ellison to Hold 35.5% of Family's Voting Rights in New Paramount
- Variety Inside David Ellison's Dramatic First 100 Days at Paramount
- Ynet News FIDF break fundraising record with $54 million for IDF soldiers
- Zeteo CBS Owner Paramount Pushed Pro-Israel Panels While Squashing One on Gaza