Paramount Global and Charter Communications have agreed to a new distribution deal for Paramount’s CBS network and cable channels, easing a concern that had threatened to complicate the media company’s sale talks.

The last three-year contract covering CBS and Paramount’s 25 cable networks expired April 30, but the two sides continued negotiations, sparing Charter’s Spectrum customers from another disruptive blackout. Last summer, a breakdown in separate talks between Charter and Walt Disney Co. resulted in Disney channels, including ESPN, going dark for 10 days for Spectrum subscribers.

While Paramount has less pull than Disney, the company still benefits from the strength of its CBS network and its entertainment schedule; news programs, including “CBS News Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes”; and sports, including golf and the NFL.

As part of the deal, the companies said ad-supported versions of Paramount+ Essential and BET+ Essential would be included at no additional cost to Charter’s Spectrum TV customers. Charter also will make Paramount’s direct-to-consumer products available for purchase to its Internet-only customers.

“This innovative deal celebrates our mutual commitment to deliver flexibility, choice and value for audiences everywhere, and we look forward to bringing even more of our fan-favorite programming to Spectrum customers through our direct-to-consumer streaming services for the first time,” Ray Hopkins, Paramount’s president of U.S. Networks Distribution, said in a statement.

The Charter deal marked the first major accomplishment for Paramount since Chief Executive Bob Bakish was ousted late last month and three division leaders, comprising the “Office of the CEO,” began running the company.

For investors, it was a shot of good news during a turbulent cycle as Paramount board members have been mulling whether to pursue a complicated and controversial two-phase merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media or accept a separate buyout bid from Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management.

Sony and Apollo have offered $26 billion, including the assumption of debt. Sony and Apollo are known to be cost-conscious buyers; they want to scrutinize Paramount’s financial picture, including details of the Charter distribution pact, before arriving at a valuation, according to people close to the process who are not authorized to comment publicly.

Both Charter and Paramount had plenty to lose if they had been unable to reach a new agreement.

Charter’s stock has tumbled more than 25% year-to-date, weighed down by concerns about weakness in its broadband internet and wireless phone business, as well as further erosion in pay TV subscribers — a trend that has had wide-reaching financial implications.

Audiences have been migrating away from general-entertainment cable channels, including BET, MTV and Nickelodeon, making them less valuable to distributors such as Charter.

Analysts have long viewed Paramount’s channels as among the weakest in the industry because they largely run low-cost reality programming, a genre that television executives say has suffered from oversaturation and higher-end competition from streaming companies, such as Netflix.

Recent Nielsen ratings shows how Paramount’s cable channels have fallen out of favor with audiences. Only three of the company’s channels — TV Land, TV Land Classic and Nick at Night — rank in the Top 20, in terms of total viewers. TV Land plays reruns of series including “King of Queens,” “Seinfeld” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Comedy Central and the Paramount Network lag behind, rounding out the Top 30.

Connecticut-based Charter’s executives, including Chief Executive Christopher L. Winfrey, were loath to agree to a new pact that would significantly raise fees for subscribers who continue to pay for their channel bundles. Winfrey also has demanded that programmers give Spectrum customers access to subscription services that provide network programming.

“From the outset, Paramount has embraced Charter’s goal of evolving the video distribution model, and we have appreciated their willingness to collaborate on a solution that benefits our mutual customers and the video industry as a whole,” said Tom Montemagno, Charter’s executive vice president of programming acquisition.

For eight years, Lancaster resident Pablo Scipione and his attorneys pushed for compensation the 46-year-old independent contractor said he was owed due to a workplace accident in early 2016.

In that accident, he slipped, fell and suffered a microfracture to his foot, according to his lawsuit, but that was only the start of his troubles.

Scipione sued the company he was providing services for — Osaka, Japan-based transportation and manufacturing company Kinkisharyo — for negligence shortly after the workplace fall, his lawyers said. But he eventually developed a debilitating medical condition due to the injury, according to court documents, leading the skilled tradesman to quit his job. He asked his legal representation to seek a settlement of $3 million in July 2022 to pay mounting medical bills.

The offer was rejected by Kinkisharyo’s defense team, according to Scipione’s attorneys.

That decision backfired for Kinkisharyo on Tuesday when a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded Scipione $58.35 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Calls to Kinkisharyo’s legal team, Los Angeles-based Husch Blackwell, were not returned.

Khail Parris is a partner at Lancaster-based Parris Law Firm, and was lead attorney along with Alexander Wheeler for the plaintiff.

Parris said $54.15 million was awarded in compensatory damages for past lost earnings, future lost earnings, future medical expenses and past and future pain and suffering. The jury also awarded $4.2 million in punitive damages.

Parris said he was a little surprised by the payout since juries can be “unpredictable.”

“I’m happy the jury heard my client,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday. “The defendant took a very aggressive stance on this case and dragged it out for eight years. The jury felt like enough was enough.”

Scipione was employed by railroad contractor Altech Services at the time of the accident, according to court documents. His duties included supervising teams of electrical technicians also employed by Altech, documents say, and his specialty was electrical troubleshooting.

Scipione was dispatched to Kinkisharyo’s Palmdale train yard around 2 a.m. on Feb. 2, 2016, for repair work, according to the lawsuit. He was instructed that it needed to be done within three hours.

Unbeknownst to Scipione, the train he was going to work on was wet after undergoing a recent water tightness test, according to testimony from a Kinkisharyo senior safety manager. That person said the train did not dry for the minimum of two days before Scipione went to work on it.

The Kinkisharyo employee also conceded that there were other safety issues in Scipione’s workspace, including poor lighting.

Scipione climbed to the top of the rail car and slipped and fell atop the vehicle, causing the microfracture to his left foot, according to court documents. Though Scipione went home after the accident, he came back to work the next day.

Nearly three months after the injury, Scipione was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, court documents say. The Mayo Clinic describes the syndrome as “a form of chronic pain” that usually affects an arm or a leg and typically develops after an injury. The Mayo Clinic added that “the pain is out of proportion to the severity of the initial injury.”

“The defendants fought us at every corner for eight years to help my client receive proper compensation and medical care,” Parris said. “Things didn’t turn until their safety manager conceded that the factory had been unsafe.”

Part of Scipione’s struggle was finding care through workers compensation insurance. Letters were presented in court that showed denials of care as the process of determining if Scipione was an actual employee of Kinkisharyo or Altech dragged out.

“The jurors were 12 little guys and saw a fellow little guy going up against a big corporation,” Parris said. “They stood up for one of their own.”

In the wake of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape trial, a survey of nearly 10,000 workers by the Anita Hill-led Hollywood Commission revealed a sobering result: Few people believed perpetrators would ever be held accountable.

The vast majority, however, were interested in new tools to document incidents and access resources and helplines.

Four years later, the Hollywood Commission is trying to make that request a reality.

On Thursday, the nonprofit organization launched MyConnext, an online resource and reporting tool that will allow workers at five major entertainment business organizations to get help with reporting incidents of harassment, discrimination and abuse.

The website allows those entertainment industry employees to speak with a live ombudsperson, create time-stamped records and submit those reports to their employer or union. (Any entertainment worker can access the site’s resources section to learn more about what it means to report an incident and understand complicating factors such as mandatory arbitration.)

So far, the commission has partnered with the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, certain U.S.-based Amazon productions, all U.S.-based Netflix productions and film/TV producer the Kennedy/Marshall Co., founded by filmmakers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees is expected to join later this year, according to the commission.

MyConnext is not intended to replace any of these organizations’ individual reporting platforms. Rather, it’s designed to provide an additional option and serve as a one-stop shop for workers seeking help or resources. The commission did not say what the initiative cost.

One key feature of the MyConnext reporting platform is called “hold for match,” which allows a worker to fill out a record of an incident and instructs the system not to send the report to one of the partner organizations until another report about the same person is detected. At that time, both reports will be sent.

“It is very difficult for an individual to come forward,” said Hill, president of the Hollywood Commission, which was founded in October 2017 to help eradicate abuse in the entertainment industry. “Let’s say, for example, Harvey Weinstein: It was very difficult to prove a case when there was only one person because there was a tendency to turn it into a so-called ‘he-said, she-said’ situation.”

With this feature, however, employers could potentially recognize a pattern of abuse. And that, Hill said, could be a game changer.

“We ultimately hope that [the tool] will elevate the level of accountability, and accountability is ultimately what I think everybody wants,” said Hill. The commission led the 2020 survey, along with a follow-up survey this year that found a similar desire for harassment reporting resources.

“Information, really, is power,” said Hill.

Advocates say such resources have become even more crucial amid what they describe as a pullback in Hollywood’s promised efforts to create a more inclusive industry for women. Fears of backsliding escalated after Weinstein’s New York sex assault conviction was overturned last month by a state appeals court, which ordered a new trial. Weinstein’s conviction in California remains.

“What’s so important even now, in light of the reversal of a conviction, is making sure that individuals who have suffered harm get to choose what makes the most sense for them,” said Malia Arrington, executive director of the Hollywood Commission. “You need to be informed about what all of your different choices may mean to make sure that you’re entering into whatever path with eyes wide open.”

With that in mind, the platform has a multipronged approach. The resources section helps workers understand their options, including the general process for filing a complaint, as well as where to access counseling and emotional or employment support.

Members of the participating organizations also have access to a secure platform through MyConnext that lets them record an incident — regardless of whether they submit it as an official report — send anonymous messages, speak with an independent ombudsperson and submit reports of abuse.

Speaking with an advocate allows workers to get their questions answered confidentially and by a live human, said Lillian Rivera, the ombudsperson who is employed by MyConnext.

“It’s a human that’s going to listen to folks, who’s going to be nonjudgmental, who is going to be supportive and is going to be able to point people toward all of their options, and really put the power in the hands of the worker so they can make the decision that’s best for them,” Rivera said.