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FCC lets Paramount sell 49.5% stake to Saudi, UAE and Qatar funds

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The Federal Communications Commission has approved Paramount Skydance's plan to sell large equity stakes to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. US law requires FCC approval whenever a licensed broadcaster's direct or indirect foreign ownership would exceed 25 percent of its stock; Paramount petitioned the FCC to waive that limit after estimating its indirect foreign ownership would reach 49.5 percent once the sovereign fund investments land.

Paramount owns CBS and holds FCC licenses for the network's 28 local stations, which is what puts the deal under the commission's jurisdiction. The company is separately trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion transaction that would combine two of the largest movie studios, merge Paramount+ with HBO Max, and hand Paramount ownership of CNN and Warner's other television channels. Trump's Department of Justice has approved that merger, but it has not closed: a group of US states has filed a lawsuit seeking to block it.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the commission, dissented publicly, saying the FCC is letting Paramount sell stakes to 'some of the most repressive governments in the world.' 'An investment this large in one of America's biggest media companies doesn't just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said and what gets made,' she said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, which the article cites for the financial breakdown, the sovereign funds plan to put $24 billion into the Paramount/Warner deal. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is set to contribute $10 billion, while the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Co. will separately add $7 billion. Those figures describe money going into the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, not a stated price for the 49.5 percent ownership stake itself.

Key facts

  • The FCC approved Paramount Skydance's request to waive the 25 percent foreign-ownership cap, letting its indirect foreign ownership reach 49.5 percent.
  • Paramount owns CBS and 28 FCC-licensed local stations, which is why the stake sale needed the commission's approval.
  • The sovereign funds' money is tied to Paramount's separate $111 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, which the DOJ approved but a states' lawsuit is trying to block.
  • Per the Los Angeles Times, the funds plan $24 billion for the Warner deal; separately reported are $10 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and $7 billion combined from the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Co.
  • FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, publicly warned that the investment secures influence over what Paramount's outlets say and make.

Why it matters

A foreign-ownership waiver this large for a US broadcast license holder is rare, and it lands inside a live fight over control of American media. Paramount already owns CBS's 28 local stations and is trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, so letting sovereign wealth funds push its indirect foreign ownership to 49.5 percent changes who ultimately backs one of the country's largest media groups. It also shows how far the current FCC will stretch the 25 percent foreign-ownership rule when foreign capital and a mega-merger are both on the table.

Who it affects

Paramount Skydance and its shareholders, the 28 CBS-owned local stations and their license status, and Warner Bros. Discovery, whose sale to Paramount depends partly on this same foreign capital. The three sovereign funds involved are Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Co. On the regulatory side, the decision involves the full FCC, the Trump administration's Department of Justice, which already approved the Warner merger, and the group of US states suing to stop it.

How to use it

For anyone tracking the Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery deal, this waiver removes one regulatory obstacle but not the central one: the states' lawsuit against the merger is still pending, so the acquisition itself has not closed. Treat the 49.5 percent foreign-ownership figure as an ownership ceiling tied to the sovereign fund investments, not as a price for the stake; the dollar figures reported ($24 billion, $10 billion, $7 billion) describe the separate Warner Bros. Discovery deal, not the equity stake sale itself.

How solid is it

The report is a direct Ars Technica account of an FCC action and includes a named, on-the-record quote from Commissioner Anna Gomez. The financial breakdown of the sovereign funds' contributions is explicitly sourced to a Los Angeles Times report rather than confirmed independently by Ars Technica, and the article gives no exact date for the FCC's decision beyond the relative marker 'yesterday,' nor does it say how any commissioner besides Gomez voted.

Risks and caveats

The Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger that this foreign capital partly funds is not finalized: a coalition of US states is suing to block it, and the article does not say what effect that lawsuit has had on the deal's timeline beyond noting it 'hasn't completed.' Gomez's dissent flags a content-influence risk from concentrated foreign state ownership of a major US media company, but the article does not report how the FCC's other commissioners voted or whether the approval was contested beyond her statement.

“An investment this large in one of America's biggest media companies doesn't just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said and what gets made.”

— FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez