Paramount Global and Skydance logos are seen in this illustration taken December 17, 2024.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
Paramount Skydance said on Monday it expects $1 billion more in merger savings than it previously forecast as it outlines CEO David Ellison’s ambitions for the company.
The update came in Paramount’s third-quarter earnings report — the company’s first since its merger closed in early August. Ellison has been investing heavily in streaming and content, including live sports rights, and paying for it in part with cuts to other parts of the business.
Paramount on Monday announced a new round of layoffs, affecting roughly 1,600 employees, tied to divestitures of assets in Argentina and Chile. Those cuts come weeks after Paramount began the process to lay off approximately 1,000 employees.
At the same time, Paramount said it plans to increase prices for its flagship streaming service, Paramount+, in the first quarter of next year as it looks to beef up its content slate and improve its the technology of the platform.
Paramount last raised its streaming prices in June 2024, after a previous hike in early 2023.
Shares of the company were up about 6% in extended trading Monday.
Cutting to grow
In Monday’s letter to shareholders, Ellison mapped out the combined company’s initiatives, which he referred to as Paramount Skydance’s “North Star priorities.” Those include investing in its growth businesses, growing its streaming business globally and identifying savings that would lead to “long-term free cash flow generation.”
While Paramount Skydance management told investors in August they planned $2 billion in cost savings, that was upped to “at least $3 billion in run-rate efficiencies” as of Monday’s report. More than $1.4 billion of those savings will be done by the end of the year and an additional $1 billion by the end of 2026, according to the letter.
The company has been shedding staff. Less than a month after the merger was completed, the company alerted employees that it would be mandating a five-day work week beginning in January and would offer employees a buyout if they didn’t want to make the transition. According to Monday’s letter, about 600 employees chose to exit the company rather than return to an office full-time.
The company also identified parts of its South American business to cut and said Monday it divested Television Federal, the operator of TV stations in Buenos Aires and other markets in Argentina. It’s also in the process of exiting Chilevision in Chile, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.
These divestitures, which were deemed “non-core” to the company’s future growth, according to the letter, would result in the 1,600 workforce reductions.
Streaming, content in focus
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison speaks during the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on October 9, 2025.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images
While Paramount Skydance’s restructuring efforts, layoffs and cost savings have been a top priority for the company, Ellison has also wasted no time in making acquisitions to build up its content slate.
Most notably, the company has reportedly been looking to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal that would see it gain the Warner Bros. film studio, the HBO Max streaming service, and a portfolio of cable TV networks including CNN and TNT Sports. Warner Bros. Discovery recently put itself up for sale, and has rebuffed three offers from Ellison in recent weeks, CNBC reported.
Ellison wouldn’t comment on his aspirations for WBD on Monday, but said the company was in build mode, which may or may not include mergers and acquisitions.
“I think it’s important to know there’s no must-haves for us,” he said. “We really look at this as buy versus build, and we absolutely have the ability to build to get to where we want to go.”
On the sports front, Paramount Skydance has added TKO Group’s UFC to its slate in a 7-year, $7.7 billion deal. Paramount+ also became the exclusive long-term home for Zuffa Boxing, a new professional boxing promotion formed by TKO and the Saudi-backed Sela, in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
The company also inked a deal with Activision to develop content off of its Call of Duty video game franchise; signed a 5-year exclusive agreement with the creators of “South Park;” and brought on Matt and Ross Duffer, the creative team behind Netflix’s hit “Stranger Things,” beginning in mid-2026.
The additions to its content slate are geared at boosting Paramount+ streaming subscribers. Paramount Skydance President Jeff Shell said during a call with investors that the service had experienced notable customer losses over the summer, but they returned in the fall at the start of the NFL season.
On Monday, the company said Paramount+ had more than 79 million global subscribers.
