David Berson, president and CEO of CBS Sports since 2021, will run the combined sports operation when Skydance Corp. closes its acquisition of Paramount Global and absorbs Warner Bros. Discovery's Turner Sports assets. The role puts $8 billion in annual sports rights spend under one executive, including NFL, NCAA March Madness, NBA, NHL, UEFA Champions League, and the PGA Tour. Skydance has not announced a closing date but executives have cited Q2 2026 in private calls.
Berson joined CBS in 2011 as executive vice president of business affairs and moved into the top sports role after Sean McManus retired. He negotiated CBS's $2.1 billion annual NFL package in 2021 and brought March Madness streaming rights in-house under Paramount+ in 2024, a move that added 4.2 million subscribers during tournament windows. His counterpart at TNT Sports, Luis Silberwasser, has not been named to a role in the merged structure. Silberwasser oversaw NBA rights and led Turner's $1.9 billion annual commitment to the league through 2036.
The consolidation creates the first vertically integrated North American sports media operation with premium broadcast windows, cable carriage, and direct-to-consumer streaming under one P&L. Skydance inherits CBS's 98% U.S. household reach via broadcast affiliates and TNT's 71 million cable subscribers. The NBA presents immediate leverage: CBS holds no current NBA rights, but Berson now controls TNT's package and can negotiate joint windows when the current deal comes up for mid-term review in 2029. Skydance executives have told league officials they plan to bid CBS broadcast windows alongside TNT cable inventory, a package structure ESPN cannot match without giving up ABC prime time.
Sponsors are recalibrating. One beer company holding $140 million in annual commitments across CBS NFL and Turner NBA told Sportico it expects Skydance to offer consolidated inventory at a 12-15% discount in exchange for longer terms. Agencies are modeling scenarios where Skydance bundles NFL, NBA, and March Madness into a single upfront buy, a format that has not existed since NBC held NBA and NFL rights simultaneously in the early 2000s. Skydance has hired Morgan Stanley to model pricing, according to two people familiar with the process.
Berson's immediate task is preventing subscriber bleed on Paramount+ and Max, the streaming services that will now compete under the same parent. Paramount+ carried 5.8 million March Madness streams in 2025; Max streamed 3.1 million NBA playoff games. Skydance plans to merge the platforms by late 2026, but Berson must first decide whether to keep both March Madness and NBA playoffs behind a paywall or use one property to drive broadcast tune-in. The NBA's media committee meets in June to discuss mid-term modifications; Berson is expected to attend.
Two coordinator-level hires are already circulating: Steve Helling, CBS Sports' executive vice president of programming, is in conversations to oversee scheduling across both networks, and Jennifer Sabatelle, TNT Sports' senior vice president of league relations, has been offered a role reporting directly to Berson. Neither has signed. The NHL, whose $625 million annual deal with Turner runs through 2028, has requested a meeting with Berson before the Stanley Cup Finals in June. One team president said his league office contact mentioned Skydance may seek to renegotiate midstream if it can add CBS broadcast windows.
Berson's appointment resolves a question that has hung over the Skydance-Paramount-WBD structure since the merger was announced in November. Silberwasser, who joined Turner in 2023 after running Telemundo Deportes, was considered the internal candidate, but Skydance CEO David Ellison deferred to Berson's longer CBS tenure and deeper NFL relationships. Silberwasser's next move will clarify whether Skydance intends to run a single sports desk or maintain separate East and West Coast operations. His contract runs through December 2026.
The combined entity will control 22% of all U.S. sports media rights spend by dollar volume, ahead of Disney's 19% and NBC's 16%, per Ampere Analysis. Skydance has not announced a corporate name for the sports unit, but three people familiar with planning said "CBS Sports" will remain the brand for broadcast windows while Turner's "TNT Sports" will anchor cable. Berson will report directly to Ellison. The first earnings call under the merged structure is scheduled for August 2026, assuming the deal closes in June.
The takeaway
Berson now controls the largest annual sports spend in North America and can bundle NFL, NBA, and March Madness inventory no other network can match.
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