Paramount Skydance (PSKY): The $2.1B Netflix fee & deleting 1.9M users [Q1 2026]

Paramount Skydance’s Q1 2026 reveals a massive profitability swing driven by deliberate subscriber culling and a $2.15 billion debt gamble to secure the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.In ~10 minutes:• Why PSKY intentionally deleted 1.9M international subscribers• Taking on $2.15B in debt to pay Netflix's WBD breakup fee• How AI code-assist software halved engineering approval times• The demographic pipeline funneling UFC fans to South Park• Looming $800M transformation costs gutting Q2 cash flowsWhile headline streaming volume looks weak, management’s pivot from vanity metrics to actual unit economics drove a 14% ARPU jump for Paramount+ 📺. However, the real operational stress test lies just ahead as the company balances a perilous Oracle backend integration, returning content costs in H2, and a swelling $15.4B debt load. Paramount Skydance Corporation (PSKY) | Q1 FY2026AI-assisted production. Feedback/ticker requests: https://x.com/EarnUnscripted.