Latest news with #GeorgeCheeks
New York Post
24-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Ugly battle between CBS and affiliates adds another wrinkle to Paramount deal
The obstacles impeding Paramount's $8 billion sale to Skydance keep piling up, and much of it involves CBS, the so-called Tiffany Network, and whether it has shed its rep for disseminating honest news. Another major hurdle getting a lot less attention but could loom just as important is a nasty battle between CBS, Paramount's news and entertainment subsidiary, and around 70 affiliates, the local broadcast stations that are independently owned, largely in Middle America, aka Trump Country, The Post has learned. They are crying foul to the administration because CBS wants to jack up prices to carry its programming and they say the price hikes are making it difficult for them to survive. Their plight could give the President Trump-appointed broadcast regulators at the Federal Communications Commission yet another reason to nix the Skydance deal given the administration's desire to protect local broadcast news. Advertisement Unless, of course, CBS backs off, something it has so far been loath to do given the pressures on its bottom line, sources said. Shari Redstone attends the Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 premiere at Museum of Modern Art on November 07, 2024 in New York City. FilmMagic Most Americans don't appreciate the complex business dealings that go into watching a football game or a sitcom on their local affiliate. Here's a 30,000-foot explanation. Cable companies pay local broadcasters like Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray Media and Cox Media for their signal so they can run their lines into the homes of millions of Americans. Advertisement Yes, it's a shrinking number of viewers and a demo that skews older but it's still substantial. There's money to be made reaching this audience in terms of fees and advertising. That's why local broadcasters become 'affiliates' of major news networks and pay for their programming. The entire arrangement is under stress, however. Cord cutting has pulled viewers away from network programming and cable fees are under pressure because there are fewer viewers. Ad rates are falling. Networks are moving programming to their streaming services, most of which aren't profitable. Take it or leave it The affiliates say they are caught in the crossfire, particularly when it comes to CBS as the network is seeking to squeeze every last dime out of a dying business model. CBS, they say, is negotiating dozens of contracts and — according to people repping some of the affiliates in the scuffle — demanding much higher fees on a take-it-or-leave it basis. The fees are said to be so draconian that the affiliate business model is in existential danger at some point and maybe soon, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Advertisement A Paramount spokesman had no comment but people at the company directed me to a recent earnings call where its co-CEO, George Cheeks, addressed the affiliate issue and the cost pressures on the company. 'We're investing heavily in must-have live sports and the most watched prime-time entertainment schedule. Now if this dynamic were to change, it would be difficult for us to continue to foot that bill. And in that case, the affiliates and local viewers, they would be harmed.' Here's where things could get interesting, and force CBS to back down. Just as CBS is moving forward with these price hikes, Shari Redstone, the media heiress who controls Paramount and its CBS subsidiary wants to sell the company to independent studio Skydance. The sale is significant for her. She and her family will walk away with $2 billion if the deal is approved by the FCC. It's a modicum of the wealth left to her by her late father, Sumner Redstone, who built Paramount into a colossus before its value was decimated with the rest of traditional broadcast. But it's more than enough to live on. Fairness issues Advertisement That's only if the Trump FCC approves the deal, which it's delaying as it investigates fairness issues at CBS News. As I have written, Redstone is so desperate to get the deal approved that she is willing to settle a separate $20 billion lawsuit with Trump himself, who sued CBS's '60 Minutes' for the same reason the FCC is holding up the deal. Both involve claims that '60 Minutes' doctored an interview with Trump's 2024 opponent Kamala Harris to make the Democrat sound more presidential during the height of the campaign. Charlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet Sign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Yeah, it's a real mess. And it could get messier because the Trumpers actually like local broadcasters as opposed to the 'fake news' big guys. They believe local news is largely devoid of left-wing agitprop found at the networks, and it's still an important source of information for small-town America. That's why they want the affiliate model to survive since Middle America is ground zero of the MAGA base, and much of it watches stuff the old-fashioned way, on television supplied by the affiliates. FCC Chair Brendan Carr, Trump's point man on this, has his hands full regulating a changing media landscape and ensuring that broadcasters play by the rules, which under the law demands news-fairness guidelines for the privilege of using public airwaves as opposed to cable. He has also made clear his support for local broadcasters, or in his words: 'We don't want local broadcasters to ultimately go the way of newspapers, and when you look at the current dynamic, I'm not sure it's entirely healthy . . . We want local broadcasters to feel empowered to actually serve the interests of their local communities and not simply become a pass-through for nationwide content coming principally from Hollywood and New York.' Looks like Shari has another reason to worry about the Skydance deal.
CNN
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
CBS News in distress after executive's exit: ‘There's a lot of fear'
Source: CNN Sometimes the arguments could be heard well down the hall. The topic was '60 Minutes,' and the tension was audible. CBS News chief Wendy McMahon was clashing with her bosses over upcoming stories on the newsmagazine — in part because President Trump's legally dubious lawsuit against CBS meant that billions of dollars were at risk. 'Wendy was standing up for us,' a veteran CBS journalist said. 'There's a lot of fear about what happens with her gone now.' McMahon stepped down on Monday, under pressure from CBS parent Paramount Global, intensifying the impression that CBS News is in distress due to Trump's political pressure and other business factors. While CBS journalists are doing their jobs and covering the Trump administration assertively, Paramount lawyers are trying to strike a settlement with Trump, perhaps believing that such a deal will help secure the administration's approval of a pending merger. With the Trump tug-of-war on everyone's minds, getting and keeping '60 Minutes' on the air this spring was a week-by-week challenge, according to people at the network. McMahon repeatedly defended the program in conversations with Paramount Global co-CEO George Cheeks, who himself was under pressure from controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. While some of the internal battles have been previously reported, five sources who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity said the fights were much more fraught than the viewing public realizes. There was one hint about it on-air, last month, after '60 Minutes' executive producer Bill Owens resigned, citing a loss of independence. 'No one here is happy about it,' correspondent Scott Pelley said of the interference Owens had sensed. The alleged corporate meddling began several months earlier. One of the disputes was over CBS News coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Redstone, a strong supporter of Israel and Jewish causes, lodged objections over what she sensed was biased coverage of the conflict. For a newsmagazine like '60 Minutes' with a long, proud tradition of independence, Redstone's involvement was deeply troubling. One of her chief complaints was about a January '60 Minutes' segment that highlighted America's support for Israel's bombing of Gaza. McMahon mediated the conflict over that report, as well as multiple disputes over '60 Minutes' reports about Trump's return to office and the impact of his administration's policy changes. It was clear, the five sources said, that Paramount was primarily concerned about how the tough Trump coverage would impact the lawsuit and settlement talks. (The New York Times reported Monday that Trump's team threatened to file another lawsuit over a '60 Minutes' segment on Trump targeting big law firms.) One of the people involved said McMahon played the role of educator, or at least tried to, 'explaining the importance of journalistic independence' to Paramount leadership. There is a long history of news division chiefs serving as firewalls between a corporate parent and a newsroom. The big difference in this case is the Trump lawsuit over last October's '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris, which Trump claimed was deliberately mis-edited at the behest of the Democratic campaign. Legal experts have derided the lawsuit as frivolous and laughable, and CBS defended the newsmagazine and its editorial judgment on First Amendment grounds. A full transcript of the Harris interview only further confirmed that '60 Minutes' engaged in normal editing processes. However, the suit posed a very serious problem for Redstone, who struck a merger deal with Skydance Media in mid-2024. That deal is now awaiting Trump administration approval. Redstone has pushed to settle the lawsuit, despite the widely held assessment that CBS lawyers would prevail against Trump in court. In a letter to Redstone that was made public on Tuesday, three Democratic senators questioned whether Paramount is in danger of violating bribery laws. That question has also come up inside CBS News. At '60 Minutes,' 'everyone thinks this lawsuit is an act of extortion, everyone,' a network correspondent told CNN. The far-flung '60 Minutes' staff — while rarely all together at the network's midtown Manhattan headquarters — is united in confidence that the program did nothing wrong, despite Trump's wild allegations about the Harris interview. But there is also a widespread sense of resignation that the Trump settlement will happen, one way or another. Citing a source close to the negotiations, CNN's Jake Tapper reported that Paramount could pay Trump as much as $30 to 50 million. McMahon and Owens told colleagues that they would not apologize to Trump as a part of any settlement, so their departures may portend an imminent deal. McMahon had detractors in and around CBS, too, and those people have pointed to other reasons for her exit. The news division's recent reformatting of the 'CBS Evening News' is widely thought to be a misfire, for instance, and the newscast will likely be retooled — again — once McMahon is out of the picture. But 'despite all her miscalculations, she was viewed as the last thing standing between us and Redstone,' one of the sources said. When Owens stepped down, CBS journalists feared that in-the-works '60 Minutes' segments about Trump could be quashed. Journalists talked with each other about how to preserve the material. According to several sources, McMahon worked behind the scenes to protect the reports. McMahon, Cheeks and Redstone have not commented about the '60 Minutes' disputes. Ultimately, the newsmagazine's reputation has been protected. Week after week, CBS has broadcast substantive investigations about Trump and other subjects. Ahead of the newsmagazine's traditional mid-May season finale, a scheduled report about Trump's planned cutbacks to the IRS was held back, but for sound journalistic reasons, according to the network. A CBS spokesperson said that 'the roughly 7,000 probationary employees who were dismissed from their jobs' at the IRS were being called back to work, thus changing the segment altogether. 'Our team will continue to report on these new details and will broadcast the story in the future,' CBS said. With McMahon exiting, her recently named No. 2, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, will now report directly to Cheeks. CBS journalists said they are hopeful that Cibrowski, an award-winning journalist and executive, will act as a heat shield with Paramount — and Skydance, assuming the merger is approved. See Full Web Article
Wall Street Journal
19-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
CBS News Chief to Leave as Tension Persists Over Paramount's Trump Fight
CBS News Chief Executive Wendy McMahon is exiting the company, the latest high-ranking departure from a network embroiled in a lawsuit with President Trump over how a '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris was edited. Parent company Paramount Global PARA -0.30%decrease; red down pointing triangle is working to settle President Trump's $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News, a resolution the company's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, sees as necessary to complete her merger with Skydance Media. Redstone has become an increasingly vocal critic of CBS News. Paramount Global Co-CEO and CBS Chief George Cheeks announced McMahon's departure to Paramount's board on Sunday, people with knowledge of the meeting said. In a memo to staff, McMahon said, 'the past few months have been challenging. It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward.' No successor for McMahon was named. CBS News president Tom Cibrowski will now report directly to Cheeks. An ABC News veteran, Cibrowski joined CBS in January. A recent point of tension between McMahon and the leadership of CBS parent Paramount Global was her unwillingness to issue an apology to President Trump as part of any potential settlement of the lawsuit, people familiar with her thinking said. The suit alleges the network deceitfully edited a '60 Minutes' interview with Harris, then the Democratic presidential candidate, to make her sound better. The network has said it was neither doctored nor deceitful. People close to the situation said the CBS board had grown concerned that reaching a settlement with Trump would become more difficult if McMahon stayed in her present role. CBS and Trump representatives have had meetings with a mediator in recent weeks to try to resolve the suit, but it couldn't be learned if or when a deal might be reached. Such a settlement is strongly opposed by CBS News staffers and executives. A resolution of the suit could help Paramount get closer to closing the merger with Skydance. The deal also requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr . McMahon has clashed with Redstone over the network's coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas. Redstone has weighed in on the news division's coverage, saying some stories have had an anti-Israel bias. Bill Owens, executive producer of '60 Minutes,' resigned last month, saying he had lost editorial independence. Redstone has had concerns in general about CBS beyond its Middle East coverage. She played a role in the appointment of veteran news producer and former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky last January as executive editor in charge of vetting stories and checking for bias, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Redstone's CBS News critiques spilled into public view last fall when she defended CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil for a challenging interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates about his book 'The Message,' which was critical of Israel. She publicly defended the anchor after backlash to his aggressive questioning of Coates, and reached out privately to offer him support, the Journal reported at the time. CBS News, like its rivals, is contending with continued cord cutting that has eroded its audience. A revamp of the 'CBS Evening News' earlier this year has fallen flat in the ratings. McMahon also oversees another unit of CBS that is embroiled in a legal fight with Sony Pictures over a lucrative distribution deal for the game shows 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy.' Write to Joe Flint at
Bloomberg
19-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
CBS News Chief McMahon Quits Over Disagreement With Management
Wendy McMahon, who served as chief executive officer of CBS News and its station group, said she is stepping down, citing a disagreement with management. CBS News President Tom Cibrowski and CBS Stations President Jennifer Mitchell will now report directly to George Cheeks, a co-CEO of Paramount Global, the parent company.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
CBS Boss George Cheeks Admits It's A 'Challenging' Time In TV & For Paramount, But That Didn't Impact Its Schedule
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways CBS has been in the news for all sorts of reasons lately, including legal battles with the President of the United States and issues around its news gem 60 Minutes. But all of this disruption has not had any material impact on its 2025/26 schedule, which the network revealed today. More from Deadline CBS President and CEO George Cheeks said it was an 'unprecedented, challenging time for the industry and for our company in particular'. 'What's most important as a leader is how you show up in a difficult time. I think my biggest goal is to make sure that the team feels supported, and that we recognize that we have to focus on what we can control, which is building an amazing schedule like Amy and her team are doing, and just really sort of locking arms and saying, 'We are a team. We're family. We're gonna get through this together',' he said. The former NBCUniversal exec said that the schedule has not been impacted by all of the noise around Paramount. RELATED: As 'After Midnight' Comes To End, CBS Boss George Cheeks Admits Late-Night Is A 'Challenge' 'What's great for us is that in spite of all the disruption, we continue year over year again to have a really strong schedule, and it allows us to make, as Amy said, some really difficult decisions, but to create an optimal schedule. That's what we do, and that was our focus the whole time, the whole process,' he added. CBS owner Paramount is currently waiting on its takeover by Skydance and there are only a handful of days left on FCC's 180-day 'shot clock' for the transaction, an informal timeline for the agency to review mergers. FCC chairman Brendan Carr referenced the timing during a press conference last week. RELATED: Harlan Coben Moves Into Unscripted For The First Time With 'Final Twist' Set At CBS Carr insisted that the regulatory review, which is crucial when transfer of broadcast licenses is involved — like is the case with Paramount as owner of CBS — is not connected to other ongoing Paramount-related matters, including a potential settlement in President Trump's $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over its 60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview. Cheeks' comments come as Skydance paused new spending on 9/12, a new drama series starring and executive produced by Jeremy Strong and written and executive produced by Tobias Lindholm and Frank Pugliese. RELATED: 'Y: Marshals': CBS Orders 'Yellowstone' Sequel Starring Luke Grimes As Kayce Dutton RELATED: As 'After Midnight' Comes To End, CBS Boss George Cheeks Admits Late-Night Is A 'Challenge' Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
