Paramount and Skydance announced Friday that, with the Trump administration’s approval, the highly anticipated merger between the entertainment giants is expected to take place next month. The Aug. 7 date,

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr praised Skydance Media’s commitment to hire an ombudsman for CBS News after it completes its merger with Paramount Global. The commitment was outlined in a filing with the FCC this week.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday gave the green light to the $8.4 billion merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media – finally clearing the way for a deal that had been throttled by allegations of bias against CBS News.

Skydance Media offered olive branches to the Federal Communications Commission in order to secure approval for its $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global, and those overtures achieved the desired result.

Hours after announcing the approval of Skydance’s merger with Paramount, FCC chairman Brendan Carr touted the company’s commitment to “addressing bias & restoring fact-based reporting” at CBS News, among other things.

The company said it will conduct a “comprehensive review” of CBS after the merger goes through to ensure the network is operating in the public interest.

Upon the deal’s closing, Skydance and its financial partners are set inject $1.5 billion in cash into Paramount. However, that’s intended to go toward reducing Paramount’s long-term debt ($14.16 billion as of Q1 of 2025) to help stabilize its balance sheet.

Plus, Hulk Hogan, the pro wrestler who brought the sport to new heights of mainstream popularity, died at the age of 71.