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Skydance, fresh from completing its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, said the Paramount part of the business generated profit of $73 million — a swing from a loss in the year-earlier period— but the results did not
include data from its new properties, because its deal did not close until October, after the fiscal period had ended.
The owner of CBS, CNN and the Paramount and Warner Bros. movie studios said net income came to six cents per share, and to 45 cents per share when adjusted for pretax expenses and non-recurring costs.
The company said revenue of $7.03 billion in the period, an increase of 5% over the year-earlier quarter.
Revenue fell at Skydance’s largest operation, its traditional TV division, down 7% to $3 billion. Advertising revenue fell 8%, due in part to the sale of Telefe and Chilevisión in October 2025 and January 2026, respectively. Distribution revenue fell 5% due to continued subscriber erosion.
Revenue from direct to consumer operations rose 11% to $2.5 billion, with the company citing accelerating Paramount+ revenue growth of 21% year-over-year, and subscriber growth of approximately 6%.
Revenue from studios rose 23% to $1.5 billion, due in large part to licensing and content produced for third parties.
In a letter to shareholders, the company said the Warner Bros. studio was not performing as well as the one at Paramount. “We expect the Warner Bros. film slate in Q4 to underperform,” the company said, while noting that “Paramount Pictures continues to perform well and is expected to double its output in 2026 with 15 releases.”
The company also indicated it expected to be able to both cut costs and to invest for the future. Skydance continues to “expect to achieve at least $6 billion in run-rate synergies, net of reinvestment across our cost structure within three years.” And executives said they believe that “by combining two global streaming services, two film and TV studio groups, two television portfolios, and overlapping corporate functions, we can reduce duplicative spend across an expense base of more than $50 billion.
Skydance also disclosed that it will follow the lead of Netflix, Disney and other major streamers by ending its quarterly reporting of streaming subscribers as of its Q4 report to come early next year. At present, Paramount+ and HBO Max combined account for some 203 million global subscribers.
In the shareholder letter penned by David Ellison, Skydance chairman and CEO, and Ynon Kreiz, co-CEO, the two touted Skydance’s “industry-leading” budget for content spending, which has topped $30 billion.
“We also see opportunity in content, which is both an expense for us but also an investment in building valuable, long-term assets for the company,” Ellison and Kreiz wrote. “We start from an industry-leading base of more than $30 billion in annual content spend and a deep library built over a combined 200-plus years of storytelling, and we will keep investing in the content engine that drives our growth. With the reach of our combined platforms across streaming, broadcast and cable, each title can work harder for us, and as one company we can make smarter choices about how we distribute and monetize our slate.”
