Paramount has extracted a £215m dividend from its British broadcaster Channel 5, one of the largest payouts in the channel's history, even as the subsidiary's pre-tax profits fell by two-thirds to £11.9m and revenues dropped 8pc to £292m. The payout was taken from retained earnings in Paramount's first year under David Ellison, who closed an $8bn deal to take control of the company last summer and has since completed a $110bn merger with Warner Bros. that rebranded the group as Skydance. Channel 5 blamed its decline on "challenging" conditions in the advertising market, though it said streaming viewing rose by more than a third in 2025, outpacing the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and it booked a one-off gain of £19.1m from an internal transfer of an investment. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy waved through the Warner Bros. tie-up after Paramount pledged to pump an extra £80m into Channel 5 over the next three years to fund news, children's programming and 20 additional hours of drama a year. Channel 5, which appointed Reemah Sakaan as its new boss at the start of this year, recently agreed to move its £300m advertising sales business from Sky to Channel 4, and previously paid its parent a £740m dividend in 2020.
Paramount Skydance CorporationParamount took a £215m dividend from Channel 5 even as the subsidiary's pre-tax profits fell two-thirds and revenues dropped 8pc
ITV PLC
Warner Bros Discovery Inc
BBC Co. Ltd.
Oracle Corporation
