The merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is now a reality after months of disputes, legal and political haggling. And one of the side effects of the new Skydance media company’s arrival could adversely affect the local Atlanta sports media world.
According to Awful Announcing, it appears that PSKY’s CBS Sports and WBD’s TNT Sports, which is based in Atlanta, could be merged into one single entity, and that could create a loss of jobs and even fewer sports rights for the combined sports media group. 
Skydance is under pressure from investors to find as much as $6 billion in cost savings from the merger. The company now has $80 billion in debt, and it must cut down that Paramount mountain-sized debt to keep Wall Street happy. Skydance’s CEO David Ellison said that cutting labor costs would only represent a small fraction of the savings, but AA says job cuts due to the consolidation of the two sports divisions are all but certain due to the redundant positions between CBS and TNT.
AA cites sports correspondent John Ourand from the media blog Puck as saying the cuts could hit both divisions hard.
“Everybody assumes it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” said a “top sports business executive” to Ourand. David Berson, who is tabbed to head the merged CBS Sports/TNT Sports division, will need to navigate the incoming process by being “honest with his people, and not hide. And over the next month or two, the final entity will start to take shape,” he said. CNBC reports TNT Sports head Luis Silberwasser is about to leave the company.
Atlanta’s Turner Broadcasting Techwood campus is the core of TNT Sports operations, and the expected cost-cutting moves by parent company Skydance could potentially end some local jobs or even possibly send them to Skydance’s New York or California studios.
Right now, Skydance, through CBS and TNT, has the most sports rights in the media business, but that distinction could also change, as the same report notes Skydance could cut the number of sports rights it now owns. Those deals include the College Football Playoff sublicense it has with Disney’s ESPN, which has two more years in effect. There’s also a Big 12 football and basketball sublicense that runs until 2031, and a French Open deal that runs for 10 years. TNT apparently no longer needs these deals because now that it’s a part of Skydance’s vast catalogue of cable and broadcast networks, it doesn’t need them to boost its cable carriage fees after losing the NBA.
“The reality is that Skydance probably has more sports rights than it needs,” said LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield to Ourand, quoted by AA. “All of the things that TNT Sports was doing to scramble to fill the hole that the NBA left-Skydance doesn’t need those rights anymore.”
According to Ourand, cuts to the NFL, NCAA March Madness, UFC, and the Masters deals are off the table. However, Skydance could take a closer look at existing deals with MLB and NHL. These two deals will expire in 2028, and TNT Sports currently pays more than $700 million annually for them. TNT Sports also airs United States Soccer, NASCAR, Unrivaled, the Big East Conference, Roland-Garros Tennis, and All Elite Wrestling.
Turner Broadcasting’s sprawling media campus is now owned by Skydance. (Credit: Google Maps)
One advantage Atlanta has is the lucrative Georgia film/TV production tax incentives that have lured many TV productions (including American Idol and Shark Tank) from Hollywood and NYC to Atlanta. Skydance may take into consideration in its decision the tax savings it could reap by not only keeping its TNT Sports operations in Techwood, but moving more of its combined sports productions to that facility. It was reported, coincidentally, that some current TNT Sports properties could wind up on CBS (locally WUPA CBS Atlanta, which CBS owns), either exclusively or via cable simulcast. This has not been confirmed by Skydance, and current WBD carriage agreements could impact these decisions.
TNT Sports roots date back to the early 70s when it was the sports division of Turner Broadcasting System (WTBS, now Gray Media’s WPCH), airing Braves and Hawks games, then adding more national sports as it became a “Superstation” and eventually expanded its national cable presence under the late owner Ted Turner.
A decision about the future of CBS Sports and TNT Sports could come within weeks.
