David Ellison won Warner Bros. Now he has to prove Paramount can beat Netflix at its own game.

• David Ellison has shaken up Hollywood since becoming CEO of Paramount Skydance.
• Paramount employees and TV viewers will see big changes as Ellison looks to build a streaming powerhouse and buy WBD.
• Paramount has already made moves behind the scenes, like reorganizing teams and hiring key execs.

David Ellison is tackling the mountain-sized challenge of transforming Paramount Skydance from a shrinking legacy media company into a Hollywood powerhouse.

The Paramount CEO is starting to unveil his long-awaited game plan: catch up to Netflix's tech, assemble a crew of top-tier executives, and rethink its news business. That goal — of creating a "next-generation" media company, in Ellison's words — is all before the planned mega-merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

These steps show how the aspiring media mogul, who took charge of Paramount in August thanks to his tech billionaire father Larry Ellison, is remaking the 114-year-old company. Paramount's portfolio includes classic brands like CBS, Showtime, and MTV, and it has pledged to ramp up movie production to 30 films per year if its WBD deal goes through.

"I think he is, directionally, spot-on," said media analyst Rich Greenfield of Lightshed Partners. "They need a lot more content, and they need a much better underlying technology."

Make it more like TikTok, Netflix, and YouTube

Ellison is out to prove he can beat Netflix at its own game — not just in a bidding war.

That's why Paramount is bolstering its streaming tech, which six staffers told Business Insider is inferior to industry leader Netflix's in both features and user experience. Ellison said in a memo he's focused on changing that by "prioritizing investments in advanced technology."

Paramount has said the combined subscriber base of its paid streamers and WBD's would be just under 200 million, compared with Netflix's 325 million.

"If you want to be successful, you try to copy what the successful people are doing," said Joe Bonner, a media analyst at Argus Research.

While Ellison didn't share more details, Business Insider has uncovered some yet-to-be announced features and others that are being workshopped.

Paramount executives are planning a move into short-form video on its flagship streamer to boost engagement by building habits.

"Nobody wakes up in the morning and goes, 'Oh, let me go see what's on Paramount+' the way they check out what's on YouTube or what's on Netflix," Greenfield said.

Paramount+ users could soon flip through TikTok-style vertical clips of "Top Gun: Maverick" or "SpongeBob SquarePants" on the streamer's mobile app.

Paramount+ product design head Dan Reich emailed product chief Dane Glasgow in mid-January, saying that his team was trying to "jump-start efforts to get a million clips" into its coming short-form platform "as quickly as possible."

Netflix previously stumbled in short-form video, but is trying again. Disney also plans to add AI-generated short clips from users to its namesake streamer after a deal with OpenAI.

Another first-quarter priority for Paramount in streaming is its sports multiview feature. Paramount debuted this feature last fall for UEFA soccer matches. A streaming tech staffer said a potential expansion could let people view multiple angles of a live event, such as a UFC match, simultaneously. While Netflix has live events, it doesn't have a multiview feature.

Paramount is also brainstorming streaming features like interactive shopping and user-generated content, which are the backbone of YouTube and TikTok, Business Insider reported. Netflix introduced shows with interactive storytelling as early as 2017, but has since scaled back. And while Netflix has added podcasts, it doesn't have user-generated content.

Reorganizing to be a 'tech-forward media company'

As Paramount prepares to jazz up its streamer, it's also working to become more like a tech company.

Paramount is merging the technical pieces of Paramount+ and Pluto TV, its free streamer. This process, known internally as "convergence," could help Paramount become more efficient. The company also plans to put Paramount+ and WBD's HBO Max into a single offering, assuming the acquisition closes.

As Paramount+ and Pluto TV come together, Ellison's company is joining key technical teams across the streamers, Business Insider reported. The reorganization will support "AI enablement and automated testing," according to a memo sent last week to staffers affected by the move.

Ellison has also put an emphasis on analytics by expanding the role of the data and insights team led by EVP Jason Kim.

This decision is central to "David's vision of trying to transform ourselves" into "the most tech-forward media company in this space," said Domenic DiMeglio, Paramount's head of streaming data, insights, and marketing.

Ellison execs are in, the old guard is out

When a new CEO takes over, leadership changes are rarely confined to the very top.

The same is true at Paramount. After taking the helm in early August, Ellison brought on former Netflix original content exec Cindy Holland to oversee the streaming business and, in October, picked polarizing editor Bari Weiss to lead CBS News.

Paramount also scored a personnel win by poaching Danielle Carney from Amazon's video and live sports sales team to lead its US ad sales group. It's also bringing on Chris Brady of Tribeca Enterprises as an EVP of its ads business. Both will report to revenue chief Jay Askinasi, who joined Paramount from Roku in November.

There have been high-profile departures at Paramount in recent months as well. Chris Simon, an EVP of agency partnerships who spent over three decades at Paramount, is stepping down, Business Insider reported last month, though he hasn't yet left the company.

Paramount's streaming product and tech, Vibol Hou, announced his departure via Slack weeks earlier, Business Insider reported.

A battle over Ellison's influence

While Ellison reorganizes and assembles a team to take Paramount to the pinnacle of Hollywood, the road ahead remains steep. Paramount will take on $79 billion of debt to finance the WBD purchase, putting pressure on the company to quickly perform for shareholders.

Ellison is also reshaping Paramount's news business, which may soon include WBD's CNN, and has faced criticism over how his political alliances could influence the company.

The 43-year-old CEO said on CNBC that he wants CBS News to be in the "truth business" and the "trust business" by serving the "70%" of people who are politically center-left or center-right.

Some analysts aren't sure Paramount can carve out that niche.

"Does that mean: make CNN less liberal? I don't know. That's a very fuzzy concept to me," Bonner said.

As Ellison puts his thumbprint on the news, some wonder who's influencing him. Ellison has built rapport with President Donald Trump, who called the Paramount CEO "great." He attended Trump's State of the Union speech with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who then posted a photo with the Paramount CEO.

And Weiss, the anti-establishment leader Ellison appointed to shake up CBS News, has faced staff questions about how her political views could impact the news operation. Weiss said she wasn't "a mouthpiece for anybody" when defending her choice to delay a "60 Minutes" story critical of the Trump administration.

Another potential influence is Middle Eastern wealth funds, which Paramount won't confirm or deny are helping back its bid for WBD. Critics worry that even if Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi don't have direct governance rights at Paramount, they could still try to informally sway Paramount management if they are investors.

"We do expect to syndicate with strategic domestic and foreign investors," said Gerry Cardinale, a leading Paramount investor of RedBird Capital, said on a podcast while sidestepping the question of potential Middle Eastern backers. "But at the end of the day, that alchemy shouldn't matter, because it'll be done in the right way."

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