Paramount +

[ncted]

So popular it loses BILLIONS of dollars, every quarter. Not every year, every quarter. It doesn't work. That simple.

I love the "greed" concept. So who is it that different in the unprofitable streaming world from the profitmaking linear world? Your cable company is probably your ISP, CBS is Paramount +, NBC is Peacock, etc.

Same players. Same "greed". Just they panicked and got into a delivery method that is unprofitable.

Profit is fine and acceptable. Excessive profit through limiting choice while jacking up prices is greed. The theory that profits must increase every quarter or the business is failing is flawed in concept, but that is what is taught in business school. With streaming, at least there is some actual competition, and you aren't tied to one vendor for content. If YTTV raises their prices, and I don't like it, I have the choice of cancelling, switching to another vendor, or even going back to cable/satellite. If Netflix or Disney does, then I can just pause or cancel my subscription until I am ready to watch again. In empowers the customer, which is what legacy media fans like yourself don't like about it for some reason. It doesn't really matter what you or I think, of course - the free market has already made the choice, and legacy linear isn't it.

 

[meStevo]

the free market has already made the choice, and legacy linear isn't it.

Yup, it's turning that 'profitmaking linear world' into streaming middle-men.

 

[Bruce]

Paramount+ is still the little engine that could, gained another 2.7 Million subs, losses went down 31% year over year to $238 million from $343 million a year ago, still on pace to profitability in 2024.

Paramount Global Stock Soars 12% on Q3 Earnings Beat

Paramount+ added 2.7 million subscribers during the third quarter of 2023 for a total of more than 63 million subscribers.

www.thewrap.com

 

[ncted]

Paramount Looking at Charter-Disney-Like Pay TV Streaming Bundles, as DTC Revenues Surge and Losses Ebb in Q3

DTC revenue was up 38% in the quarter as Paramount Plus added 2.7 million subscribers to reach scale of 63 million

www.nexttv.com

 

[Bruce]

Paramount Looking at Charter-Disney-Like Pay TV Streaming Bundles, as DTC Revenues Surge and Losses Ebb in Q3

DTC revenue was up 38% in the quarter as Paramount Plus added 2.7 million subscribers to reach scale of 63 million

www.nexttv.com

It might add revenue if so.

The biggest myth of the Charter deal with Disney, is that Spectrum receive those services for free with the deal, 100% untrue, they are paying a wholesale rate, the same rate that Cell Phone Providers pay, also it is the with Advertising Versions.

My other issue with the Charter deal, is you have to get their highest tier to receive them, how many are really going to do that since people are running from the high prices of Traditional Providers ( cable/sat are now under 55 million subs, from 100 Million in 2016).

Subscribers could get those services for a lot less with a lower tier video subscription and getting them direct from Disney.

 

[NashGuy]

Lots of talk the past few days that Paramount might finally be up for sale. Skydance, with private capital backing, is in talks to buy the company. Sounds like they're mainly interested in the studio, not Paramount+ or the broadcast and cable nets.

Shari Redstone weighs options for Paramount as Skydance eyes bid for studio

Hollywood production company’s shares up nearly 40% over month as deal speculation mounts

www.ft.com

If that's true and they end up making a deal, I'd think that the most logical scenario would be to shut down Paramount+. It continues to lose money and, as all industry observers note, the streaming arena is ripe for consolidation. Too many players. Paramount Studios would be more profitable to the new owners if it could strike streaming output deals for its film and TV library with other companies, e.g. Netflix, Amazon, WBD/Max, etc., rather than holding that content back for Paramount+. Paramount already makes new original content directly for those services (e.g. Station Eleven for Max, Reacher for Prime Video, etc.), so that would continue.

Byron Allen has expressed strong interest in buying ABC if Disney should choose to sell it, so he might likewise be interested in buying CBS plus its cable siblings like BET, Nickelodeon, MTV, etc.

Not sure what would happen to Showtime. If Paramount+ dies, then they'd have to undo its recent/ongoing integration with Paramount+. I suppose it would either get sold to whoever buys CBS and the basic cable nets or it might be sold to another company to combine with a complementary service, such as Starz or AMC.

 

[Bruce]

Lots of talk the past few days that Paramount might finally be up for sale. Skydance, with private capital backing, is in talks to buy the company. Sounds like they're mainly interested in the studio, not Paramount+ or the broadcast and cable nets.

Shari Redstone weighs options for Paramount as Skydance eyes bid for studio

Hollywood production company’s shares up nearly 40% over month as deal speculation mounts

www.ft.com

If that's true and they end up making a deal, I'd think that the most logical scenario would be to shut down Paramount+. It continues to lose money and, as all industry observers note, the streaming arena is ripe for consolidation. Too many players. Paramount Studios would be more profitable to the new owners if it could strike streaming output deals for its film and TV library with other companies, e.g. Netflix, Amazon, WBD/Max, etc., rather than holding that content back for Paramount+. Paramount already makes new original content directly for those services (e.g. Station Eleven for Max, Reacher for Prime Video, etc.), so that would continue.

Byron Allen has expressed strong interest in buying ABC if Disney should choose to sell it, so he might likewise be interested in buying CBS plus its cable siblings like BET, Nickelodeon, MTV, etc.

Not sure what would happen to Showtime. If Paramount+ dies, then they'd have to undo its recent/ongoing integration with Paramount+. I suppose it would either get sold to whoever buys CBS and the basic cable nets or it might be sold to another company to combine with a complementary service, such as Starz or AMC.

Per Fox Business, Skydance already backed out.

 

[NashGuy]

Per Fox Business, Skydance already backed out.

I'm not seeing any new developments to this story on that site or anywhere else this morning, except for this article at Variety posted an hour ago which seems to think a possible deal is still in play as Redstone mulls laying off 1000+ employees in the new year.

Paramount Global Mulling 1,000-Plus Layoffs Amid Shari Redstone’s Talks to Sell Controlling Interest (Report)

Heading into the new year, the future of Paramount Global is very much up in the air.

variety.com

Will be interesting to see what happens. Looks like if Paramount doesn't get bought, their only way forward will be to cut costs. Got that $2 billion payment to the NFL coming up next year. I still think the company is going to get picked apart, it's just a matter of when. Buyers might be content to wait awhile, let Shari trim some fat and get a little more desperate...

 

[lakebum431]

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global Have Held Meeting to Discuss Possible Merger

WBD CEO David Zaslav and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish met in New York this week.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[mackie99]

Will probably mean I will lose my 25% off for life (Paramount+) for being a vet if WB takes over.

 

[Bobby]

Will probably mean I will lose my 25% off for life (Paramount+) for being a vet if WB takes over.

I was thinking that as well…

 

[Stuart Sweet]

There's a lot of chatter about this on other sites. Obviously most folks are against it, considering what happened to HBO Max after the Discovery buyout. I'm against it too, because I'd hate to see Paramount+ savaged like that.

In the end it doesn't matter what the regular folks think, it's pretty clear that David Zaslav doesn't care. If he thinks it will make him more powerful he will do it.

The only think I can't quite wrap my head around is how he or anyone can think that (a) WBD has enough money to do this when they claim they're bleeding cash, that's why they castrated Max; and (b) how combining three supposedly failing operations (HBO, Discovery, and Paramount) is going to amount to one successful one.

Way back in the 1990s, this happened with software companies. Corel, WordPerfect, WinZip, Roxio, PaintShop Pro, and several other formerly big names in the business all merged. "Technically" the resulting company is still in business. Corel seems to be the leading company in sign shops, and law firms still use WordPerfect. But can anyone seriously call any of those products a market leader? Do you even remember them?

Honestly a merger between WBD and Paramount would just mean that Disney and NBC would get stronger.

 

[Howard Simmons]

Will probably mean I will lose my 25% off for life (Paramount+) for being a vet if WB takes over.

Me too.

 

[MikeD-C05]

There's a lot of chatter about this on other sites. Obviously most folks are against it, considering what happened to HBO Max after the Discovery buyout. I'm against it too, because I'd hate to see Paramount+ savaged like that.

In the end it doesn't matter what the regular folks think, it's pretty clear that David Zaslav doesn't care. If he thinks it will make him more powerful he will do it.

The only think I can't quite wrap my head around is how he or anyone can think that (a) WBD has enough money to do this when they claim they're bleeding cash, that's why they castrated Max; and (b) how combining three supposedly failing operations (HBO, Discovery, and Paramount) is going to amount to one successful one.

Way back in the 1990s, this happened with software companies. Corel, WordPerfect, WinZip, Roxio, PaintShop Pro, and several other formerly big names in the business all merged. "Technically" the resulting company is still in business. Corel seems to be the leading company in sign shops, and law firms still use WordPerfect. But can anyone seriously call any of those products a market leader? Do you even remember them?

Honestly a merger between WBD and Paramount would just mean that Disney and NBC would get stronger.

I think that we are witnessing another cable bundle in the making. We will end up with 4 main companies and if you want to subscribe to them it will start to cost you like when you had forced bundling with cable or satellite. We will also end up with sanitized services with no real value. Sad that the bold streaming future will end up just like cable again. I don't have to have all those services and can do just fine with my ota dvr and watch a lot of what I watch anyway for free.

 

[savarese04]

There's a lot of chatter about this on other sites. Obviously most folks are against it, considering what happened to HBO Max after the Discovery buyout. I'm against it too, because I'd hate to see Paramount+ savaged like that.

In the end it doesn't matter what the regular folks think, it's pretty clear that David Zaslav doesn't care. If he thinks it will make him more powerful he will do it.

The only think I can't quite wrap my head around is how he or anyone can think that (a) WBD has enough money to do this when they claim they're bleeding cash, that's why they castrated Max; and (b) how combining three supposedly failing operations (HBO, Discovery, and Paramount) is going to amount to one successful one.

Way back in the 1990s, this happened with software companies. Corel, WordPerfect, WinZip, Roxio, PaintShop Pro, and several other formerly big names in the business all merged. "Technically" the resulting company is still in business. Corel seems to be the leading company in sign shops, and law firms still use WordPerfect. But can anyone seriously call any of those products a market leader? Do you even remember them?

Honestly a merger between WBD and Paramount would just mean that Disney and NBC would get stronger.

a fair comparison, but none of those products were even good at the time they came out (and most of them were ad-supported or freeware that turned into paid products, which turned off their core user base).

In this case, I am not sure how I feel about this merge, but I do think that less apps is better than more apps.

 

[navychop]

I much prefer the Dish system. Single UI. But a lot of content has left them. Makes it hard to justify the expense. Gotta save up for that item whose name may not be mentioned outside its own forum.

 

[Bruce]

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global Have Held Meeting to Discuss Possible Merger

WBD CEO David Zaslav and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish met in New York this week.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Not happening-

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Zaslav not ready to make deal for Paramount but options remain on table

The purchase of Shari Redstone’s stake in National Amusements and Paramount would make it easier for David Zaslav to start to absorb the media company.

www.foxbusiness.com

 

[NashGuy]

I doubt there will be a WBD/Paramount merger because, for one thing, the Biden admin will oppose it. And I think Paramount wants a deal to get struck this year. If Biden is re-elected, I don't see any combination of WBD, Paramount and Universal being allowed to merge. So if you can't merge, then do what ABC, NBC and Fox did way back in 2007 when they launched Hulu: cooperate via a joint venture.

My prediction for 2024 is that Paramount will get a new owner that slims it down (i.e. sells off select assets), laser-focuses it on profitability, and shuts down the money-losing Paramount+ service. That content will instantly become profitable as it gets licensed out to multiple third-party streamers.

My prediction for 2025 is that Zaslav gives up on another major merger because we'll still have a Democrat in the White House, so we see WBD and Comcast/Universal throw in the towel on Max and Peacock and instead invest in a jointly owned streamer. The big twist? That streamer will be Hulu, which they'll purchase back from Disney. It will contain barely any of the Disney-owned content that constitutes the bulk of the Hulu library now, but WBD and Universal will get an established streaming brand with its app and large subscriber base. They'll quickly launch it internationally. While the Disney/20th Century content will get yanked out and put on Disney+, WBD and Comcast will more than fill that void with the content that formerly resided on their Max and Peacock apps.

So we end 2025 with Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV+ as the last five big global DTC SVODs left standing.

 

[Bruce]

I doubt there will be a WBD/Paramount merger because, for one thing, the Biden admin will oppose it. And I think Paramount wants a deal to get struck this year. If Biden is re-elected, I don't see any combination of WBD, Paramount and Universal being allowed to merge. So if you can't merge, then do what ABC, NBC and Fox did way back in 2007 when they launched Hulu: cooperate via a joint venture.

My prediction for 2024 is that Paramount will get a new owner that slims it down (i.e. sells off select assets), laser-focuses it on profitability, and shuts down the money-losing Paramount+ service. That content will instantly become profitable as it gets licensed out to multiple third-party streamers.

My prediction for 2025 is that Zaslav gives up on another major merger because we'll still have a Democrat in the White House, so we see WBD and Comcast/Universal throw in the towel on Max and Peacock and instead invest in a jointly owned streamer. The big twist? That streamer will be Hulu, which they'll purchase back from Disney. It will contain barely any of the Disney-owned content that constitutes the bulk of the Hulu library now, but WBD and Universal will get an established streaming brand with its app and large subscriber base. They'll quickly launch it internationally. While the Disney/20th Century content will get yanked out and put on Disney+, WBD and Comcast will more than fill that void with the content that formerly resided on their Max and Peacock apps.

So we end 2025 with Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV+ as the last five big global DTC SVODs left standing.

Hulu is not known worldwide, it is primarily a United States streamer only, it would be like basically starting over in the overseas markets.

It would be smarter to go back to the HBO name, that is known everywhere.

 

[ncted]

The big twist? That streamer will be Hulu

So, Disney is going to sell back the thing they are almost finished buying?

Disney to acquire the remainder of Hulu from Comcast for at least $8.6 billion