All roads are leading Network Ten and its parent company, Paramount Global, towards new ownership and who the successful party might be just got a little clearer this week.

David Ellison, who owns film production studio Skydance Media (and is the son of Larry Ellison, founder of tech giant Oracle and the world’s fifth-richest person), is in an exclusive month-long negotiating period with Paramount to merge the two companies.

Tom Cruise films have been central to an established relationship between Skydance and Paramount.Credit: Marija Ercegovac.

If successful, Ellison will purchase Paramount chair Shari Redstone’s family holding company, National Amusements, Inc. for $US2 billion ($3.1 billion), becoming the company’s chief executive and controlling shareholder. Paramount owns Network Ten, Channel 5 in the UK, US network CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV and the storied Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures.

The deal, while complex and far from completion, would mean Network Ten changing hands for the sixth time. In 2017, CBS bought the network, which later merged with Viacom before rebranding as Paramount Global.

A Network Ten spokesperson declined to comment. However, network executives – speaking anonymously due to the ongoing........

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