“We be ok with our place and our capability to stay a standalone.”
That was Paramount Co-CEO Chris McCarthy‘s replace on the standing of Paramount+, delivered on this morning’s third-quarter earnings name. His remark got here after an analyst requested whether or not a strategic accomplice was nonetheless being searched for Paramount+. The corporate has brazenly acknowledged exploring a spread of partnership situations and disclosed not too long ago in an SEC submitting that talks have been held with media rivals.
Streaming was a shiny spot in Paramount’s quarter, with direct-to-consumer income climbing 10% and Paramount+ including 3.5M subscribers to succeed in 72M, making it the fourth-largest international SVOD streamer.
McCarthy’s assertion veers from what insiders disclosed to Deadline over the summer time, which was that Paramount had talks with Warner Bros Discovery and Amazon on a possible streaming collaboration. Particulars have been unclear as to the form that may take. McCarthy instructed Wall Road analysts on an August name that the corporate has obtained “a number of curiosity from many alternative companions” in a possible joint streaming enterprise.
Paramount isn’t utterly closed-minded to a possible streaming partnership with a rival. “You’ll be able to completely rely on us being opportunistic,” McCarthy stated at this time. “We’re partnerships from a strategic lens to drive extra worth and you’ll make sure that in deciding that we’ll take key elements into consideration. However the final worth will probably be is that this going to drive elevated worth for our enterprise at this time, our customers and our buyers.”
Conventional media corporations have typically struggled to interchange the profitable twin income stream of linear pay-TV with the pricey streaming enterprise, although shopper sentiment continues to shift towards the latter. Twine-cutting has shaved hundreds of thousands of U.S. pay-TV subscribers from the bundle yearly, and there’s no clear consensus about the place the underside could also be.
Any kind of dialogue a few potential streaming accomplice by Paramount would even have to incorporate session with future guardian Skydance. The businesses anticipate to shut their merger within the first half of 2025. A 600-plus-page SEC submitting this week disclosed that previous to the announcement of the Skydance merger this previous summer time, Paramount held talks with Comcast a few attainable three way partnership between the 2 OTT providers.
Comcast President Mike Cavanaugh stated final week that his conglom is open to doing a streaming three way partnership for the rising however nonetheless money-losing Peacock. Comcast and Paramount have already got a JV, Sky Showtime, which operates in practically two dozen European territories.
