David Ferris Ellison
Chairman and CEO at paramount skydance corporation
Chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance Corporation since the August 7, 2025 close of the Skydance-Paramount merger. Founded Skydance in 2006 (formally launched 2010 with $350M financing), built it into a film-and-TV producer behind Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible series, then engineered the $8B Paramount take-private and the pending $110B Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition agreed Feb. 27, 2026.
Ellison is the operator at the center of the largest wave of U.S. studio consolidation in a generation. Inside eight months of taking over Paramount, he moved from integrating the Skydance-Paramount combination to negotiating a $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — a deal that, if it closes on its targeted Q3 2026 schedule, would fold Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, Discovery, Paramount Pictures, CBS, and Showtime under a single corporate roof.
For ad buyers and the streaming-distribution market, the throughline is scale. Paramount Skydance’s upfront posture, Pluto TV’s FAST footprint, and Paramount+‘s SVOD/AVOD mix all sit downstream of Ellison’s capital-allocation choices and his stated intent to compete head-to-head with Netflix and Disney at the global-content-spend tier. Coverage on this site tracks his moves where they touch streaming distribution, advertising, or measurement — not the broader film-slate or talent-deal beat.
Recent coverage
Elsewhere
- A Message From Our Chairman and CEO
- Skydance Media and Paramount Global Complete Merger, Creating Next Generation Media Company
- Paramount To Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery To Form Next-Generation Global Media and Entertainment Company
- Paramount CEO David Ellison's Pay in 2025 Was $63.2 Million
- Paramount's David Ellison Addresses Warner Bros. Execs at Town Hall
- Paramount Skydance Merger Finally Closes
- David Ellison