Paramount Global—the huge media conglomerate that owns CBS, MTV, and one of Hollywood’s most historic movie studios—has decided to merge with technology scion David Ellison’s Skydance Media, ending years of worry over the company’s future.

The agreement, revealed late Sunday, comes only weeks after Ellison’s previous offer to acquire Paramount crumbled at the last minute, surprising industry insiders and raising concerns about the struggling media company’s future.

Paramount, The Media Empire Behind CBS And ‘Top Gun,’ Agrees To Merge With Skydance

The transaction solidifies Ellison’s status as a media mogul, eliminating Shari Redstone’s control of Paramount through her family’s National Amusements holding company after her father, the late Sumner Redstone, won a fierce bidding war to put together the media empire in the 1980s.

Skydance will first acquire National Amusements before merging with Paramount, valuing the company at $4.75 billion.

The production firm founded by Ellison will “invest $2.4 billion to acquire National Amusements for cash and $4.5 billion for the stock/cash merger consideration to be paid for publicly traded Class A shares and Class B shares, as well as $1.5 billion of primary capital to be added to Paramount’s balance sheet,” according to the statement.

Ellison will lead the combined firm as CEO, and Jeff Shell, former CEO of NBCUniversal, will serve as president.

In a call with investors Monday morning, Ellison and Shell set out Paramount’s strategy, seeking to become a “technological leader” in the streaming industry and unveiling cost-cutting efforts worth $2 billion.

“We love the creative engine of this company, but obviously a big chunk of the company is in the linear world — and we know that linear is challenged and declining,” Shell said to the media. “I think a lot of us in the business know we’ve got to run these businesses in a different way as they decline.”

The agreement ends a dramatic and protracted saga that began in December. The two firms entered exclusive talks in April, leading to the departure of longtime Paramount CEO Bob Bakish. Meanwhile, the firm has been led by a trio of executives: Brian Robbins, CEO of Paramount Pictures; Chris McCarthy, CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios; and George Cheeks, CEO of CBS.

While legacy media firms have struggled in recent years, Paramount, with its wide portfolio of cable networks like MTV and Comedy Central, has been significantly exposed to the seismic consumer shift away from the old television model and toward streaming services. As services like Netflix grew popular, millions of individuals ditched cable packages to favor cheaper on-demand streaming TV and movies. Paramount, which relied heavily on the television industry, was caught off guard.

To offset dwindling cable income, Paramount invested billions of dollars developing its streaming service, Paramount+. However, it was late to the game, and like the competitor streaming platforms established by other legacy media corporations, the service has struggled to achieve enough customer momentum to offset its losses in the linear television industry.

The legendary company’s valuation has also plummeted due to the turmoil, with Paramount shares down more than 75% in the previous five years. At a company town hall last month, Robbins acknowledged that the conglomerate’s future had been a concern.

“We’d want to take a moment to acknowledge the problems posed by all of the M&A rumors surrounding our company. “We understand how difficult and disruptive this period has been,” Robbins added. “And while we cannot say that the noise will disappear, we are here today to lay out a go-forward plan that can set us up for success no matter what path the company chooses.”

While Redstone has been contacted recently about selling off sections of Paramount’s enormous media portfolio, including Showtime and the cable network BET, multiple high-priced bids to split the business were ultimately rejected.

Paramount, The Media Empire Behind CBS And ‘Top Gun,’ Agrees To Merge With Skydance

In recent months, as takeover bids for Paramount resumed, Sony Pictures and private equity company Apollo Global Management proposed a $26 billion deal that would have made Sony the majority shareholder and Apollo a minority shareholder. However, the deal would have resulted in the dissolution of Paramount, a possibility that Redstone opposed due to her affinity to the company her father had spent decades developing.

The sale to Skydance Media, launched in 2010 by David Ellison, son of Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, provided Redstone with an offer she could not refuse: billions of dollars in cash and the security of selling the family business to the heir of another titan who has vowed to invest in Paramount’s future. Skydance and Paramount also have a long history, collaborating in recent years to produce some of the box office’s biggest blockbusters, including “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible” films.

“Given the changes in the industry, we want to fortify Paramount for the future while ensuring that content remains king,” Redstone said in an interview. “Our hope is that the Skydance transaction will enable Paramount’s continued success in this rapidly changing environment.”

SOURCE | CNN

(VOR News) – Channel 5 has launched a brand-new drama series called The Night Caller. There will be a lot of surprises, drama, and spooky action in the episodes that air next week.

Over the course of four episodes, we follow Tony, a taxi driver, as he becomes more and more intimate with Sean Pertwee, a late-night radio DJ. It is Robert Glenister who plays Tony.

Tony’s first feeling of respect comes after he calls Lawrence on the air. For the first time in years, he feels respected. But eventually he starts understanding Lawrence’s “world view” in harmful ways.

” As the relationship progresses, Tony becomes increasingly obsessed with Lawrence, until he realizes the real Lawrence isn’t who he appears to be.”

TV is not always a place where shows are made on location, thus it’s arguable whether The Night Caller was shot there or somewhere else. Continue reading for a thorough rundown of every location that is used in the new series.

Where was the filming of The Night Caller done?

Despite the fact that The Night Caller is set in and around Liverpool, the majority of the filming for the drama on Channel 5 took place in Dublin, with a small number of shots also being shot in Liverpool.

The main idea of the show is that we spend a lot of time watching Tony drive his taxi late at night around Liverpool’s streets, transporting inebriated people to and from various locations.

Robert Glenister responded to a question concerning the shooting process by saying, “We were filming in Dublin, and it’s interesting seeing a city at night, you do see it in a completely different light.”

Whether I was driving the cab or we were in a low loader with lights and a camera, it was an exciting ride through Dublin’s club district on a Thursday night. There was no usage of a green screen or any special effects.

When a few more jars were empty, everyone was eager to get involved! Not only did I like it, but I also became proficient at inadvertently pressing the fare button—I could do it without even looking! To control the low loader, all you need to do is grab the steering wheel because it is attached to the front wheels. The low loader is an extremely practical vehicle as a result.

While filming The Night Caller, Diarmuid Goggins said:

“We shot most of the series in Ireland and then sent over a second unit to shoot a few days in Liverpool to capture the background of the city.”

Consequently, everything Robert can see from his window in Liverpool was captured, while everything facing him in the vehicle was captured in Ireland. Our three days in Liverpool were spent filming the nightlife rather than enjoying it. In addition, we snapped some significant images of Anfield, the churches, and the docks.

Today, many series shoot in different cities to where they’re set, and I was apprehensive because sometimes it doesn’t work. I would never want to disappoint an audience by deceiving certain locations around the world, which are notoriously hard to deceive.

“For example, I attempted filming a show that was created in London in Dublin, and the two places are completely different from one other. I don’t think that was successful since London is so much bigger, contains a considerably higher percentage of high-rise buildings, and is so much more expansive.

Still, Liverpool and Dublin share a lot of historical parallels. Similar to the docks is the red-brick building. We soon realized that they aren’t exactly one million miles apart as we drove around. Despite my opinion that it’s smooth, people with keen eyes could see it.

Channel will begin playing The Night Caller every night at nine o’clock starting on Sunday, July 7. After the episodes run on Channel 5, viewers can watch them on My5, and starting on Wednesday at 10 p.m., the full box set will be accessible.

For more details on what’s now airing on TV, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or continue reading our coverage of dramas. If you subscribe to The Radio Times Podcast, you’ll gain access to more content from some of the biggest personalities in television.

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As the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” suggests, actor Kevin Bacon is well-known, and has been for a long time.

The “Footloose” and “Friday the 13th” actor, who has been in the business for well over 40 years and has two films out this week, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” and “MaXXXine,” spoke with Vanity Fair for an interview published on Friday, in which he discussed his longtime status as a highly recognizable star, as well as how he recently tried to see how the other half lived.

Kevin Bacon Wore A Disguise To Spend The Day Like A Normal Person And Discovered It ‘Sucked’

“I went to a special effects makeup artist, had consultations, and asked him to make me a prosthetic disguise,” Bacon told the newspaper.

Once dressed and undercover, he traveled to The Grove, one of Los Angeles’ most popular shopping districts, and was delighted to learn that “nobody recognized” him.

He was thrilled at first, but it quickly faded.

“People were shoving past me, which was not very pleasant. Nobody said, ‘I love you.’ “I had to wait in line to, I don’t know, buy a f—king coffee or whatever,” Bacon said slyly. “I thought, This sucks. I want to return to being famous.”

Bacon, recognized for his ability to play characters ranging from incredibly likable (as in “Tremors” or “Apollo 13”) to extremely evil (as in “Sleepers” or “The River Wild”), once again plays a villain in his two new films.

He told Vanity Fair that as an actor, he has never hesitated to take darker roles since, to him, “this is what an actor is.” I never worry about how others perceive me. Work is about taking on several identities and being a part of a larger story.”

Kevin Bacon Wore A Disguise To Spend The Day Like A Normal Person And Discovered It ‘Sucked’

“I don’t need you to go to the movies and love me,” Bacon continued. “If you go to a movie like ‘MaXXXine’ or ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,’ and I die, and you jump up and cheer, I think, ‘Great. That was my gig. That’s all I wanted out of it.”

“MaXXXine” hits theaters on Friday. “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” is currently available on Netflix.

SOURCE – CNN