Paramount+, the streaming service that ViacomCBS Inc. is using to compete with rivals Netflix and Disney+, ended last year with 32.8 million subscribers, a sign that the media company\u2019s investment in streaming is starting to pay off.<\/p>\n
ViacomCBS, which said it\u2019s changing its name to Paramount Global in a separate announcement, broke out Paramount+\u2019s subscriber number for the first time while reporting its results for the final quarter of 2021. The company had previously reported a total streaming number that included Paramount+, Showtime and BET+.<\/p>\n
Paramount+ added more than 7 million subscribers in the final three months of the year, its best quarter to date. ViacomCBS now has 56 million subscribers across all of its services.<\/p>\n
The company is confident enough in its streaming services that it upped its guidance, projecting 100 million subscribers by 2024.<\/p>\n
Paramount+ still has a fraction of the customers of major rivals, but it has picked up its pace over the last year and a half and is now one of the fastest-growing streaming services in the U.S.<\/p>\n
It added more customers than HBO Max last quarter, and almost as many as Netflix despite operating in far fewer countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want you to take note of the extraordinary progress we have made over the last two years, and all the momentum we have gathered,\u201d Shari Redstone, the chairman of the company\u2019s board, said during a presentation to investors.<\/p>\n
Investors aren\u2019t as confident. The shares slipped as much as 7% to $33.40 in late trading after the company reported earnings, excluding some items, of 26 cents a share. That was below the 45-cent estimate from analysts.<\/p>\n
The growth of Paramount+ is vital for ViacomCBS, a company built on cable TV networks that have haemorrhaged viewers over the last decade.<\/p>\n
Total sales jumped 16% in the final quarter of 2021, driven almost entirely by streaming. The company generated $1.3 billion in revenue from its streaming business, up 48% from the year before. Advertising and affiliate sales were flat.<\/p>\n
ViacomCBS owns a film and TV show library that is the second-most in-demand of any major media company, according to Parrot Analytics.<\/p>\n
But it has licensed hit shows such as \u201cYellowstone\u201d and \u201cSouth Park\u201d to rival services, and ViacomCBS still splits its original programming between Showtime and Paramount+.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf ViacomCBS wants to be a leading player in streaming, they must exclusively place this highly in-demand content catalogue onto Paramount+,\u201d Parrot Analytics wrote in a note Tuesday.<\/p>\n
ViacomCBS is starting to ramp up its output for streaming, and Paramount+ in particular.<\/p>\n
The company commissioned \u201cYellowstone\u201d creator Taylor Sheridan to make a spinoff, \u201c1883,\u201d and has paid \u201cSouth Park\u201d creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to make original movies for its streaming service.<\/p>\n
The company announced dozens of new projects for Paramount+ during its presentation to investors Tuesday, including a reboot of \u201cBeavis and Butt-Head\u201d and a spin-off of \u201cNCIS\u201d for Australia.<\/p>\n
Paramount+ will also be the exclusive streaming home of new movies from Paramount Pictures starting in 2024.<\/p>\n
ViacomCBS differs from Netflix and Disney in that it owns Pluto TV, a free, advertising-supported service that offers dozens of live channels. Pluto has more than 60 million users and generated more than $1 billion in sales last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPluto is the service that continues to not get respect,\u201d ViacomCBS Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a total home run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paramount+, the streaming service that ViacomCBS Inc. is using to compete with rivals Netflix and Disney+, ended last year with 32.8 million subscribers, a sign that the media company\u2019s investment in streaming is starting to pay off.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":434146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[12857,61603,2054,10440,76626,62312],"class_list":["post-434144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-disney","tag-hbo-max","tag-netflix","tag-paramount","tag-viacomcbs","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}