LiveVideo.AI Seeks Reconsideration of Skydance/Paramount, Citing Political Bias Issues
The FCC is facing persistent calls from one unsuccessful bidder for Paramount Global to revisit the approval of the company's sale to Skydance Media, but we're told the commission is unlikely to heed them. The agency didn't comment Wednesday.
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In a petition for review posted Wednesday (docket 24-275), LiveVideo.AI said the approval was "profoundly flawed." It alleged "a broader pattern of procedural irregularities and deficient responses from Paramount and Skydance, [which] fundamentally undermine the integrity of the proceedings." A divided FCC signed off on Skydance/Paramount last month (see 2507240079).
Wednesday's petition in part reiterated arguments that the company also made in a petition for reconsideration posted Tuesday in the docket. The big contributions that Paramount's incoming president, Jeff Shell, makes to the Democratic Party show he "obviously is going to produce biased news content," LiveVideo.AI said in Tuesday's filing. "We hope that [FCC Chairman Brendan Carr] can take off his blinders and comprehend that proof of bias as a Federal broadcast license holder is linked to the existence of political donations."
LiveVideo.AI -- an AI-based, short-form video technology company that unsuccessfully bid for Paramount Global -- had petitioned the FCC last year to deny the Skydance transaction, saying Shell was fired from Comcast for inappropriate conduct with a female employee (see 2412170038).
As part of its FCC recon petition, LiveVideo.AI submitted a Federal Elections Commission complaint that it lodged last month alleging that Shell, while he was head of Comcast's NBCUniversal, used straw donors to make large contributions to Democratic candidates during the 2020 election "so that the public perceived NBC news broadcasts including Presidential debates were being overseen and managed by nonpartisan individuals." The company told the FCC that given the agency's responsibility to ensure that all broadcast license applicants are complying with federal laws and regulations, the FEC complaint "raises significant questions about the applicant's integrity and ability to operate in the public interest."
LiveVideo.AI also filed a separate recon petition on Skydance/Paramount on Monday, citing "potentially unlawful ex parte communications" in June between President Donald Trump and Skydance CEO David Ellison, when the two interacted at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event. The timing of a $16 million settlement being reached in a Trump lawsuit against Paramount's CBS regarding news coverage (see 2507020053) so soon after that interaction is "suspicious," LiveVideo.AI said. The FCC's subsequent Skydance/Paramount approval "inexplicably omitted any analysis of these interactions or their legal implications under federal anti-bribery statutes."
Frank Montero, a Fletcher Heald lawyer who handles media mergers and acquisitions, said he doesn't "see this FCC reopening that can of worms now that they have approved the transaction." While Carr and the administration are responsive to political arguments, it seems probable that the Skydance/Paramount decision was made in coordination with the White House, given the high-profile nature of the transaction and the CBS investigation, Montero told us in an email. He added that the recon petitions and application for review likely "will sit for a while" and maybe get dismissed down the road.
LiveVideo.AI has pending before the U.S. District Court for Southern New York a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Paramount Global Chairwoman Shari Redstone, alleging that she withheld information about LiveVideo.AI's interest in buying Paramount while falsely claiming Paramount was open to bidders beyond Skydance.