M+E Connections

The ViacomCBS streaming subscription goal has been achieved ahead of schedule and the company is moving forward on its plans to expand its flagship Paramount TV Plus streaming service into new markets and also enhance the service, company executives said Feb. 15 during an investor presentation on its results for the fourth quarter (ended Dec. 31).

Kicking off the event, Shari Redstone, board chair of ViacomCBS, told attendees and online viewers the company changed its name to Paramount Global, effective Feb. 16.

“Paramount has always represented brilliant storytelling for audiences around the globe, on the big screen, the small screen and every device in between,” she said. “It is what we are, it is who we are and it is who we are destined to be,” she noted, pointing out the event was being held at Kaufman Astoria Studios, the original New York home of Paramount.

The company achieved its best quarter to date in streaming subscription growth in Q4 as it more than doubled subscriber additions from the prior quarter, with a record 9.4 million additions, while expanding total global streaming subscribers to more than 56.1 million, it said.

“Our momentum is building and, as it grows, as we take Paramount Plus and our other streaming businesses to the next level, the size of the opportunity we see ahead is matched only by the scale of our ambition to seize it,” according to Bob Bakish, ViacomCBS CEO.

“Our company added 9.4 million new streaming subscribers in Q4 alone, 80 percent of them on Paramount Plus,” he said. Meanwhile, Pluto TV, the company’s free, ad-supported streaming TV platform, “gained a record 10 million monthly active users in Q4, spreading its reach to an audience of nearly 65 million monthly actives and, for full year 2021, it generated over $1 billion in revenue, almost five times what it delivered just two years ago,” he said.

Shifting to the company’s streaming goals, he said: “We’re moving fast and gaining even more speed. Already, we are one full year ahead of schedule, posting subscriber results we didn’t expect to see until next January and, by the end of 2022, we’re on track to hit our 2024 subscriber goal, two full years ahead of schedule.”

ViacomCBS now expects to reach 100 million streaming subscribers by 2024, compared to the 65 to 75 million projected last year, he added.

Noting that ViacomCBS is seeing success in its linear TV and theatrical film business also, he said Paramount “became the first studio with two number one films at the box office, with Scream and Jackass Forever, both of which will debut on Paramount Plus in March.”

Looking ahead, he said: “Powered by our phenomenal Paramount content engine, we see a huge global opportunity in streaming, a much larger potential market that can be captured by television and film alone. We’re excited about that opportunity and our ability not just to compete, but to thrive, and thereby create significant value for both consumers and shareholders.”

The company’s “breadth positions us to access a larger accessible market, penetrated more quickly and do it all efficiently and sustainably,” he explained.

Over the next year, the company plans to expand the success of Paramount Plus “across key genre lanes, scripted and unscripted, sports, news and events, kids and family, and movies of all kinds,” he said. For one thing, starting with 2024 Paramount film releases, “Paramount Plus will become the streaming home for all new Paramount movies following their theatrical runs,” he disclosed.

Expansion Plans

The company is “leveraging our global footprint to bring Paramount Plus to new markets with enormous potential,” according to Tom Ryan, CEO and president of ViacomCBS Streaming.

“In just one year, we launched the service in 25 markets across Latin America, Canada and Australia,” he said. This year, “we’re building on that momentum, expanding to some of the biggest markets in the world,” he disclosed, saying: “We will launch in the U.K., South Korea and the Caribbean by this summer, and will continue with a focus on Europe, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria in the second half of the year.”

ViacomCBS is “taking the annual plan we rolled out in the U.S. and expanding it internationally,” he also said, adding: “At the same time, we’re creating brand new offerings, like mobile-only plans for markets where value is key and mobile devices dominate streaming consumption. To do all this, we’re leaning on our longtime global presence and a vast network of relationships with partners all over the world.”

Further ahead in the future, he said that, starting in 2023, ViacomCBS will “turn our sights to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, building on our momentum to bring Paramount Plus to every region of the world.”

The company is also “enhancing the service itself,” he said, explaining: “We’re constantly asking ourselves, ‘how do we make this experience better, smoother, more personalized – not just how do we serve users? How do we delight them?’”

ViacomCBS is, therefore, “continuing to innovate,” he said, noting, “we’ve revamped our brand hubs and introduced collection pages, and we’ve used innovations from across our platforms to create an even richer experience on Paramount Plus.”

The company has “launched 20 linear franchise and genre channels in the U.S. on Paramount Plus, so if you love animation or TV classics, you can jump straight in and discover something new,” he went on to say. “Just a few weeks in, the adoption of linear channels has grown quickly and the people who use this feature are spending 40 percent more time on the service than they were before,” he added.

“Our goal with these product enhancements is to give people every reason to explore and enjoy the full breadth of our content on Paramount Plus, to make the experience so engaging, it becomes part of your daily routine,” he explained.

Starting this summer, the company will be making its Showtime streaming service “even easier to access in one app experience,” he said, disclosing: “The Showtime service will still be available separately if that’s your preference. But within Paramount Plus, it will be seamless to sign up for Showtime and easier than ever to discover great shows. You’ll be able to simply upgrade your Paramount Plus subscription to a bundle that includes the Showtime service and then view all that content in a single user experience. And then when you’re done watching Mayor of Kingstown, you’ll be able to move immediately to the next season of Billions without ever leaving the Paramount Plus app.”

Paramount Plus = The Main Driver

Across ViacomCBS streaming services, “Paramount Plus continued to drive the vast majority of new subscribers in the quarter” but its Showtime over-the-top (OTT) service also “had a record quarter of additions,” according to Naveen Chopra, the company’s CFO.

In ad-supported streaming, meanwhile, “Pluto TV continued to thrive, delivering its biggest quarter” of monthly active user (MAU) “growth by adding 10 million MAUs to reach 64.4 million MAUs globally,” he said.

Combined, the streaming services “powered another quarter of exceptionally strong revenue growth,” he noted. “Global streaming revenue was up almost 50 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion, benefiting from strong subscription revenue growth, which accelerated yet again to an impressive 84 percent,” he said.

Total company Q4 revenue grew 16% from a year ago to $8 billion, while total global streaming revenue soared 48% to $1.3 billion. But it reported non-GAAP adjusted earnings of $557 million (26 cents a share), compared to $1.2 billion ($1.04 a share) in Q4 last year.