July 2 (Reuters) - Skydance Media has reached a

preliminary agreement to buy Shari Redstone's family company

National Amusements and merge with Paramount Global ( PARAA ),

the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Shares of Paramount were up 9% in after-hours trading.

Redstone's National Amusements plans to refer the new deal

to a Paramount special committee for review, the report said,

citing people familiar with the matter.

Skydance will pay $1.75 billion for National Amusements as

part of the deal, the report said.

Paramount declined to comment, while National Amusements and

Skydance did not immediately respond to Reuters request for

comment.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Shinjini

Ganguli)