David Ellison is betting big on sports, streaming, gaming and bold hires. Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
Four weeks into his tenure as CEO of the newly merged Paramount Skydance Corporation, David Ellison has wasted no time putting his stamp on the company. Since formally taking the reins on Aug. 7, the 42-year-old mogul has moved at breakneck speed—striking billion-dollar deals, wooing creative talent, greenlighting major franchises, and even courting a controversial media startup.
Ellison promised to transform the legacy studio into a “tech-forward company that blends the creative heart of Hollywood with the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley,” he said in a strategy memo last month. Here’s a look at how he’s already begun to make good on that promise:
The UFC inks a deal with Paramount
On Aug. 11, Ellison announced a blockbuster $7.7 billion agreement making Paramount the exclusive U.S. home of the UFC mixed martial arts organization beginning in 2026. The deal will move UFC away from its pay-per-view model and deliver its lineup of annual events directly to Paramount+ subscribers, with some simulcast on Paramount-owned CBS.
“Live sports continue to be a cornerstone of our broader strategy,” Ellison said when unveiling the deal. “The addition of UFC’s year-round must-watch events to our platforms is a major win.”
The hope is that Paramount+, which trails rivals like Netflix and HBO Max with 77.7 million subscribers (as of June), could find in UFC the kind of audience magnet it desperately needs.
Adding to that strategy: Ellison recently tapped Cindy Holland, the former Netflix executive who helped drive its early growth, to oversee all of Paramount’s streaming efforts.
The Duffer brothers join Paramount
Just a week after the UFC announcementEllison unveiled another coup: a four-year partnership with Matt and Ross Duffer, the creative duo behind Stranger Things. Starting in 2026, the brothers will develop films and series through their Upside Down Pictures banner for Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television and Paramount+.
The Duffers framed the move as a homecoming, reuniting with Paramount executives Holland and Matt Thunell, who championed Stranger Things at Netflix back in 2015. The deal sends a message to Hollywood creatives that Paramount intends to be, as he put it in his strategy memo, “the first call for filmmakers and artists seeking a creative home that champions their work.”
Ellison levels up with Call of Duty and Street Fighter
Ellison, an avid gamer who admits to spending “countless hours” playing Call of Dutyis also pushing Paramount into video game IP. On Sept. 2, the company announced a live-action feature film adapted from Activision’s Call of Duty franchise, which has sold more than 500 million copies over two decades. Calling the project “truly a dream come true,” Ellison likened it to Paramount’s 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverickpledging the same “disciplined, uncompromising commitment to excellence.”
Two days later came another headline: a multi-year global distribution deal with Legendary Entertainment. The partnership will debut with Street Fighter in 2026, co-produced with Capcom and filmed for IMAX. Legendary CEO Josh Grode hailed the pact as an “extraordinary opportunity” to reach audiences worldwide.
Courting The Free Press founder Bari Weiss
Among Ellison’s whirlwind first-month moves, none has drawn more controversy than his reported bid to acquire Bari Weiss’s The Free Press and bring her into a senior role at CBS News.
Puck’s Dylan Byers reports Ellison pitched Weiss, the journalist who grew her Substack into a multimillion-dollar media brand, during July’s Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley. Talks have reportedly intensified, with Byers’ sources saying a deal is “on the one-yard line.”
Ellison’s plan reportedly includes giving Weiss a major decision-making role at CBS News, though the possibility has already sparked blowback from some staffers, who are griping off the record to reporters.
Ellison appears willing to bet on Weiss’s mix of contrarian politics and audience loyalty. That could complicate his pledge, made the day the Paramount-Skydance merger closed, that he doesn’t want to politicize the new company “in any way, shape or form.”
Return-to-office for Paramount employees
Ellison’s opening month hasn’t been all wins. The CEO also rolled out a return-to-office policy effective January next year, requiring employees to be in the office five days a week. Buyouts are available for those unwilling to commute or relocate, effectively making the policy an early step toward downsizing ahead of deeper layoffs this fall.
“I believe that in-person collaboration is absolutely vital to building and strengthening our culture,” Ellison told staff in a company-wide email. He framed the move as fostering creativity, but for many employees already weary from years of cost-cutting, it’s another worrying signal.
Ellison has been candid about these choices. In his August strategy memo, he promised to make Paramount “leaner, faster, smarter and more agile” with $2 billion in cost cuts while redirecting resources to premium storytelling and streaming. “Technology is not—and never will be—a replacement for human creativity,” he wrote. “Rather, it serves as a powerful multiplier.
The bottom line: For Ellison, the next few years will test whether a studio born in the silent film era can be reborn as what he calls “the world’s next generation media and entertainment company.”
