After days of fan anxiety over its absence from Skydance’s official portfolio graphics, Turner Classic Movies has its answer. TheWrap has learned the beloved classic-movie channel will fall under the Skydance Motion Picture Group, the latest restructuring move since Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merged under David Ellison.
The Skydance Motion Picture Group is led by co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein. The placement puts TCM inside the film division of the newly combined company, which Ellison runs alongside co-CEO Ynon Kreiz.
The news should calm classic film lovers who have been on edge since the merger closed. When Skydance released a graphic detailing its enormous new collection of networks, studios, and streaming services, TCM was conspicuously missing, sparking fears the channel had been forgotten. One fan on X called the omission “a slap in the face,” writing he had seen “zero evidence” that Ellison cared about the history of either studio.
Those fears have deep roots. In 2023, TCM’s future looked grim under the David Zaslav regime at Warner Bros. Discovery, when several top executives, including 25-year veteran Pola Changnon, exited amid layoffs. Warner Bros. film chiefs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca then joined Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson in a public campaign to save the network, with the filmmakers calling it “a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week.”
The Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger officially closed October 6 in a $110 billion deal, as Trevor Decker News previously reported, bringing HBO, CNN, two century-old movie studios, and dozens of cable networks under the Skydance banner.