The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger has officially created a much bigger entertainment company called Skydance. The deal took effect Tuesday and brings together major Hollywood studios, television networks, streaming services and news businesses under one company. The merger is also a sign of how strongly Big Tech is influencing Hollywood.
CNN reported that Skydance has repeatedly highlighted its technology plans while presenting the company to Wall Street. Skydance wants to run the new company more like a technology company. Technology is a major part of CEO David Ellison’s plan for the combined business, alongside the traditional Hollywood focus on movies, television and storytelling. Skydance also wants to upgrade the technology behind its streaming services. This includes HBO Max, which became part of the company after the Warner Bros. Discovery deal. The goal is to make the streaming experience easier and more competitive with major rivals. Improving the technology powering streaming services is a major part of the plan. The company wants to make its different streaming systems work together. Paramount+ and HBO Max could eventually be offered together, while their underlying technology systems could also be unified. Cardinale believes Hollywood has to adopt Silicon Valley’s way of working. Cardinale made the comments at the Bloomberg Screentime conference last week.
Newly appointed co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said technology will be central to the company. He said Skydance wants to build a highly capable media company around a modern technology platform that can improve the user experience, make work more efficient and reduce operating costs. The company says consumers should eventually get a simpler streaming experience. Skydance said its direct-to-consumer streaming products will see major improvements and will eventually be brought together into a single service. Skydance said Tuesday that consumers can expect more innovation from a company with technology at its core. Gerry Cardinale, a key architect of the merger, said Skydance plans to unify the technology stacks across its direct-to-consumer businesses, according to CNN. He said the industry needs to become more like a technology company if it wants to compete with the major technology companies based in Silicon Valley.
Kreiz said this on Monday.
