Those are among the reasons industry sources don’t expect significant changes at CBS Sports as Shell and Ellison seek out their billions in synergies post-close. As the merger wound its way through a protracted federal approval process, Skydance cited the division’s long-term rights deals with the NFL, the NCAA’s March Madness tournament, and the PGA Tour as examples of the network’s health. CBS Sports also owns the rights to major college football properties, including the Big Ten and the annual Army-Navy game. Those deals are built atop decades of deep relationships with leagues and teams—an approach that helps explain, for example, the network’s uninterrupted coverage of the Masters for the past 70 years. Naturally, the leagues and conferences seemed pleased when Brendan Carr’s F.C.C. finally approved the merger.

Still, there will inevitably be changes in the media rights landscape at CBS in the coming years—especially when MLB and NHL contracts come up for renewal. Shell, after all, was at Fox Sports in the late 1990s when the division pursued a regional network strategy, eventually launching the Fox Sports Net (which later became FanDuel Sports Network). At NBC, he led the effort to create a 24/7 sports network, which eventually became NBCSN. In fact, when Shell launched the channel as Versus 20 years ago, he actively tried to persuade Berson to run it—but, sources say, Berson’s ESPN boss at the time, Mark Shapiro, refused to let the young executive out of his contract. (Shell’s sports bona fides include actually being a fan. He’s an avid Dodgers season-ticket holder and active fantasy football player.)

Berson, who took over when McManus retired last April after 27 years, is a similarly drama-free character to his predecessor, and manages in the same manner—focused on deepening relationships with leagues, conferences, and on-air talent. But he’s also made moves that put his stamp on the sports division. For the NFL Today pregame show, for example, Berson replaced Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason with Matt Ryan. He also made the decision to take the show on the road for regular-season games for the first time in its history—pregame, halftime, and postgame segments included. And he decided to move J.J. Watt from the studio show to the booth, where he will be paired with Ian Eagle.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Berson’s tenure, however, is that he’s eschewed publicity—certainly an uncommon attribute for a sports business executive. Berson negotiated several key deals—including the arrangement that saw CBS take over the production of Netflix’s NFL games—and yet, few details regarding either on-air changes or negotiated deals (extending the Army-Navy game to 2038, for example, and the Women’s Champions League through 2030) have leaked. Indeed, the network’s sports division continues to exist with comparatively little drama, even as the chaos of the merger approval process has unsettled the market. And as Ellison and Shell prepare for the rodeo ahead, that sort of omertà offers considerable value.